Volvo Trucks: The Epic Split Feat. Jean-Claude Van Damme

There are commercials, and then there are moments that transcend advertising entirely and become part of the cultural conversation. Volvo Trucks’ “The Epic Split” is firmly in the latter category. Released in November 2013, this 75-second film did something almost no B2B advertisement had ever done before — it went genuinely, globally viral, racking up over 100 million views and earning the kind of earned media that no budget could buy outright.

The premise sounds simple on paper: Jean-Claude Van Damme, the Belgian martial arts action star famous for performing the splits in his films, performs an actual split between two reversing Volvo FH trucks at sunrise. But execution and ambition are everything in advertising, and Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors delivered both in spades.

The Idea Behind the Split

The ad was part of Volvo Trucks’ broader “Live Tests” campaign, a series of films designed to demonstrate the engineering precision and reliability of Volvo’s latest trucks. Earlier entries in the series had included a truck balancing on a suspension bridge cable and a truck being directed by a hamster — creative, but nothing approaching the cultural impact of what was coming.

The brief, as understood by Forsman & Bodenfors, was to prove Volvo FM’s dynamic steering system in the most visually dramatic way possible. Dynamic steering is technology designed to give drivers precise, effortless control — it reduces steering effort, absorbs vibrations, and increases stability at all speeds. How do you make that interesting to a global audience? You get Jean-Claude Van Damme to do the splits between two moving trucks at dawn.

The stunt was filmed in a single take at the abandoned Ciudad Real International Airport in Spain. Two Volvo FM trucks drove slowly backward in a perfectly synchronized formation while Van Damme, feet balanced on the side mirrors of each truck, eased into a full transverse split. Enya’s “Only Time” played softly on the soundtrack. The visual was so arresting, so quietly extraordinary, that it needed almost no voiceover or copy to do its work.

Forsman & Bodenfors: The Agency Behind the Myth

Forsman & Bodenfors is a Gothenburg-based Swedish advertising agency founded in 1986. They have long been considered one of Scandinavia’s most creative shops, and their work for Volvo Trucks had already earned attention before “The Epic Split.” But this film put them firmly on the global creative map.

The agency’s approach was grounded in a belief that the best brand storytelling is rooted in genuine product truth. The “Live Tests” series wasn’t fabricated spectacle — each stunt was a real demonstration of a real truck capability. Van Damme’s split illustrated the smoothness and precision of Volvo’s dynamic steering not through a diagram or a spec sheet, but through pure cinematic awe.

Creative direction came from Björn Engström and Sophia Lindholm, with production handled by Lief Films. The spot was directed by Andreas Nilsson, a Swedish director known for combining the absurd with the visually beautiful.

Why It Worked

The genius of “The Epic Split” lies in what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t overexplain. It doesn’t list features. It barely speaks. Instead, it trusts the image — an aging action star, silhouetted against a pink-and-gold Spanish sunrise, holding an impossibly perfect horizontal split between two massive moving trucks — to do everything.

The casting was deliberate. Van Damme had been out of the mainstream spotlight for years, and there was something both nostalgic and quietly triumphant about seeing him at 53, still capable of that signature move. His voiceover was minimal: “I’ve had my ups and downs, my fair share of bumpy roads and heavy winds. That’s what made me what I am today.” The line blurred the line between the man and the machine, making both feel tested and trustworthy.

The internet responded instantly. Within days of its release on November 13, 2013, the video had been shared millions of times. Late night hosts referenced it. Parody videos appeared within hours, the most famous being “The Epic Split — Feat. Van Damme (PARODY)” starring Chuck Norris doing the splits between two fighter jets. Volvo had achieved what most B2B brands only dream of: they made people who would never buy a truck stop and watch their advertisement twice.

Awards and Legacy

“The Epic Split” became one of the most decorated commercials of 2014. It won the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions — the most prestigious individual award in advertising. It picked up Grand Prix honors in the Film and Cyber categories as well. Ad trade publications across the world named it the best commercial of the year.

More importantly, it changed how people thought about truck advertising. Volvo had proven that industrial machinery — the least glamorous product category imaginable — could generate the kind of brand love typically reserved for sneakers and luxury cars. It showed that you didn’t need a celebrity endorsement in the traditional sense: you needed a celebrity doing something no one had ever seen, in service of a genuine product truth.

Forsman & Bodenfors followed up the campaign with additional “Live Tests” that also generated millions of views, but none matched the cultural impact of the split. Some ideas are simply lightning in a bottle, and this was one of them.

What Brands Can Learn

The lesson brands continue to take from this campaign is deceptively simple: if you have something real to say about your product, find the most visually extraordinary way to say it. Don’t hide your product truth behind lifestyle imagery or celebrity associations that have nothing to do with what you sell. Find the intersection of genuine capability and human drama, and film it beautifully.

Van Damme was not chosen because he was famous. He was chosen because his body had spent decades developing the exact same quality Volvo’s engineering had: precision, control, and grace under pressure. That alignment between the celebrity and the product claim is what separates an ad from a story worth sharing.

Twenty-four hours after launch, Volvo Trucks had more than earned back whatever they paid for the stunt, the filming, Van Damme’s fee, and the media buy. By the end of the week, they had something priceless: a film that people sought out voluntarily and sent to their friends.

Client: Volvo Trucks Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors, Gothenburg, Sweden Director: Andreas Nilsson Production Company: Lief Films Year: 2013