Cboe Global Markets, a leading exchange holding company, has debuted a campaign that’s a departure from the norm in the finance category. Created in partnership with agency tms and directed by Adrian De Sa Garces through production house Eleanor, the surrealist, cinematic work conveys a powerful, culture-first insight: a world without options is no world at all.
The package of films includes this :60 hero spot, “A World Without Options,” viewers are dropped into the unsettlingly familiar world of NoOptionsVille, a dystopian universe where sameness is the status quo. From barbershops offering just one haircut to vending machines stocked with identical snacks, the films underscore the absurdity of limited choice.
Shot over six days across more than a dozen stylized, surreal locations in South Africa–including fully built sets, practical effects, and CGI interventions–the campaign required months of world-building, design coordination, and editorial ambition. To pull off this otherworldly portrait of monotonous monopoly, the creative team crafted seven fictional brands for the protagonist to interact with throughout his optionless routine.
“The ambition of this campaign was massive,” said Sophie Gold, president and executive producer of Eleanor. “From the sheer scale of production to the obsessive detail in every frame, we built an entire world to expose the quiet horror of limited choice. Our mission was to make that constraint visceral, delivered with elegance, intelligence, and craft at the highest level. And we did.”
