by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Retailers seldom step outside the box when it comes to advertising.
Stock-in-trade is the loud, annoying ad with flashy images and obvious graphics, displaying (usually three) items on sale, with the message “buy now” or “price special” hammered home. Whether it’s toilet rolls or bread rolls or chicken rolls on ‘special’ in these formulaic ads, unless one’s looking for a bargain, it’s a signal to turn one’s internal attention ‘button’ to mute.
Thankfully, Checkers has decided to surprise viewers with an amusing and appealing spot, that has nothing much to do with products, but targets a bigger issue: inflation.
This tale is told using humanity’s best friend – a dog. And who doesn’t love dogs? The star, in this case, is an English bulldog, with possibly the most expressive face I have ever seen (on a dog.)
99Cents TVC for Checkers: “Inflation, down boy!”
“Follow you around wherever you go – and you can’t do anything about it,” the voiceover continues, while the dog in the ad follows the owner into the bathroom, and watches his master with the most baleful expression.
We hear the narrator say: “But at Checkers we spent years perfecting the art of controlling inflation.”
This is a television ad that skilfully positions the SA supermarket as a hero in the fight against rising prices and the increased cost of living. Checkers is taking the retailer’s conventional sales pitch and reframing it in terms of something that affects us all: inflation.
Consumers are tired of being told that one store is cheaper than the other, or that prices are lower for a limited time only – and all the other ‘tricks of the trade’. But inflation is a concept all consumers experience, it is common to everyone, and is one of the things most consumers blame for not being able to make ends meet.
Anyone on a budget has noticed how the steady creep of inflation eats away at the salary cheque. Prices go up monthly, but raise time only comes around once a year. Living within your means, as financial advisers always tell us to do, is made difficult by the continuous rise in prices. Inflation means that either our standard of living must drop to accommodate it, or something must be sacrificed, such as savings. Which, financial advisers tell us, is bad.
So of course, the sales pitch here is that Checkers will keep inflation (or a dog named ‘Inflation’) under control. That the retailer is our ally in the war against that which eats away at our ability to live a reasonable life. And that Checkers will help make your life as a consumer better.
It’s a new way of looking at the situation, and the symbol of a dog that can be trained to balance biscuits on its nose is appealing, Not that inflation can actually be controlled in macroeconomic terms, at least not by one retailer, but the promise is original and its execution is novel and endearing.
Getting back to the ad: “Last year,” the voice-over claims, “we saved our shoppers from one billion rand in price increases brought on by inflation.” The shot of the dog looking sorry here is priceless. How exactly Checkers did this is not explained, but it’s an interesting claim. Hopefully this will be fleshed out in print and online ads that extend the campaign.
The ad ends with the question, “Isn’t it time you changed to the supermarket that has inflation under control? “Inflation,” the dog in the ad is told: “Down, Boy” – and of course the Winston Churchill lookalike gets down and looks very well behaved. The payoff text is: “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket.”
The commercial was conceived by the team at 99Cents agency in Cape Town, including executive creative director Marius van Rensburg and agency producer Hylton Heather. Studio production was by AFS Productions under the direction of Brin Kushner, and the man behind the lens was DoP Terence Maritz.
Animal wrangler Nicole Jennings says that this was a debut performance for the bulldog star, Banjoe. Bulldogs are apparently difficult to train, so having such a well-behaved animal on set was a real coup; the shoot actually ended ahead of schedule.
Hats off to Checkers, for doing something unusual, and engaging with customers in an entertaining and challenging way – demonstrating that the supermarket brand really understands its customer and the challenges they face.
Ad of the Week, published on MarkLives every Wednesday, is penned by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki), the CEO of Ornico, a Brand Intelligence® firm that focuses on media, reputation and brand research.
If you are involved in making advertising that is smart, funny and/or engaging,
please let Oresti know about it at info@ornicogroup.co.za.
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