Engineering confidence when the ground keeps shifting.
Rubrik
Client
Rubrik
The Team
CD: Brian Scheyer
Concept Development:
Brian Scheyer
Art Direction:
Brian Scheyer
Script:
Brian Scheyer
Joe Gatti
Brand Director:
Deanna Singrey
Director:
John Leestma
DP:
Jason Joseffer
Producer:
Elizabeth Howe
The Challenge
Develop a creative video commercial, rooted in Engineering for Endurance, that shows Rubrik as the enduring foundation for the AI era.
The Creative
Cybersecurity has traditionally been built around prevention: build stronger walls, anticipate the next threat, keep the bad things out. But in the AI era, that promise is becoming increasingly difficult to make. New threats emerge constantly, AI agents introduce new vulnerabilities, and for CISOs, the ground beneath them can feel like it is literally shifting.
That insight became the creative idea behind "Quicksand".
THE CONCEPT
"Quicksand" started with a slightly irrational fear left over from growing up on TV and movies in the late ’70s and early ’80s, when quicksand seemed to be everywhere. My heroes were constantly stumbling into it, and somehow it felt like a legitimate danger we’d all eventually have to face. Decades later, that childhood anxiety became a surprisingly perfect metaphor for cybersecurity in the AI era, where the ground really does seem to be constantly shifting beneath today’s CISO.
We took that familiar piece of pop culture and dropped it into a modern workplace, with an overwhelmed security leader watching his office literally turn to quicksand. But rather than making his struggle the joke, the story becomes one of camaraderie and resilience when another CISO immediately pulls him onto a solid Rubrik platform.
The result takes something nostalgic and slightly absurd and gives it new relevance:
you may not be able to control how unpredictable the AI era becomes, but with Rubrik, you can control what you’re standing on.
FROM CONCEPT TO PRODUCTION
We explored the film shot by shot, testing camera positions, character performances, wardrobe, office environments, the behavior of the quicksand and the scale of the Rubrik platform. AI-assisted visualization became part of the pre-production process, allowing us to rapidly prototype compositions and refine the transition from everyday office pressure to physical instability. The end result were all practical effects shot in-studio – which included over 6,000 lbs of sand.
The result is a series of videos built around a very simple truth:
The ground may keep shifting.
Rubrik gives you something solid to stand on.
