by Oresti Patricios • Tags • Page 21 of 23 •

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Sta-soft’s ‘tough guys’

Who’s tough? Who’s the roughest, meanest dude you can think of? Chuck Norris? Rambo? Hulk Hogan? If your answer was all three, say “Whoo-hah!”

And what do all tough guys need? Softness, of course, because when it comes to creating an advert to show how effective a fabric softener really is, only the toughest guys make the cut and the tougher you are, the softer you need your clothes to be.

That’s the message from Sta-soft’s new ‘tough guys’ print campaign that uses Sly Stallone, Norris and Hogan look-alikes made out of the softest cloth to drive home the contrast between what’s soft and what’s hard. All kidding aside, I’m glad to see a fabric softener brand go for something a bit cleverer (and a little less obvious) that the usual cute baby (or kitten) to illustrate its USP.

The cloth caricatures in the new Sta-soft ads were created by Shaun Hill of Says Who, a Johannesburg-based branding, design and illustration studio. The fabric versions of the world’s most popular ‘tough guy’ personalities are beautifully rendered through the use of different materials, and the clever use of light and shade which creatively adds to the depth of the ad. O&M is the agency behind this simple but oh-so-effective campaign.

The lack of copy is a notable feature of the ad. Everybody knows the brand; it’s not necessary to labour the features and benefits of the product that almost every South African has grown up with.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – hip hop hooray

The origins of hip-hop culture date back to the urban minorities of 1970s USA, when ‘battles’ were introduced as a way of settling neighbourhood scores. Instead of having a gang fight, two crews would face off and compete, either in breakdance, rap, ‘turntablism’ or even graffiti.

Probably most exciting were the breakdance ‘battles’ where different crews would face off and take turns in showing off their breakdance moves. The tradition continues today and can be experienced at hip-hop events, even here in South Africa – mainly in Cape Town, but also in other cities.

DStv’s promotional ads have a history of humour, and of using cultural genres to make a point about the brand and the strength of its content, and the latest ad which features a gangland type face off is no different.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Chris Barnard, again and again and again

by Oresti Patricios. I have to admit to having mixed feelings about this ad… but I still have to give it credit for sheer production value.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – a ‘secret gardener’ & the guy who installed swings all over his city, just for the heck of it

In a time when everything revolves around profit, corporate growth and return on investment, it’s good to see a campaign that goes beyond the obligatory corporate social responsibility gambit. But that’s exactly what Coca-Cola’s ‘Crazy for Good’ campaign seems to do.

And thank goodness this agency, Draftfcb, refrains from ‘talking down’ to its market – yes, it’s predominantly a youth market, but gladly they didn’t spell it “kraz-E 4 gud” or some other form of text-speak.

The campaign is all about ‘passing it on’ – people who perform random acts of kindness for the good of society. It’s not a centralised, coordinated effort – rather it revolves around real-life stories that feature people doing a wide range of thingsto benefit their fellow human beings. This is what is so cool about this campaign – it is just about ordinary Joes and Janes with a passion which they use to beneficially impact on the people around them.

This global campaign, which was developed at Ogilvy Brazil, Sao Paulo, highlights these special, giving people, like Zainab Imran, the Pakistani musician who sings and plays at her local children’s ward… despite the fact that she’s visually impaired. What motivates her to give up four days a week to perform for children? “When I sing,” she says, “I feel that the children forget that they are unwell. When they sing and clap their hands, I forget that I’m unable to see.”

Then there’s San Franciscan Jeff Waldman, who installed swings all over his city, just for the heck of it. He was given a $1000 grant by the city of Los Angeles to do the same there; then he ran a Kickstarter fund to hang swings all over Bolivia. They hung them from trees, buildings, rocky outcrops, and even in the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt pan in the world.

Ad of the week with Oresti Patricios: Underdog love story meets So You Think You Can Dance

For many years now, Wimpy has opted for brand oriented campaigns that are highly visual with a strong feel-good factor. In these campaigns the burger people aren’t selling the bun, the patty or the sizzle, they’re selling a brand positioning that’s all about fun.

Way back in 1981 Wimpy had an absurd alien in an equally absurd UFO, coming to Earth to get a burger, only to have his UFO towed for illegal parking. Then there was that ‘free mug’ promotion that had a mug collector showing off his collection, only to have the boom microphone get stuck in the overhead fan, wreaking absolute havoc and destroying the whole collection, candid camera style. And who can forget “I love it when you talk foreign” – the spot that promoted Wimpy’s barista-style coffees? That particular TV ad achieved a massive word-of-mouth factor – at the time everyone was ‘talking foreign’ and mouthing the words: ‘Cremachino, café mocha, and macchiato.

Wimpy has a long history in South Africa. The first store was opened in 1967 in Durban, and over the years it became SA’s de facto burger joint, and a part of our national fabric. In those early days one could buy a burger, chips and coke for a mere 60c. Bought from the American mother company in the late 70s by Bakers, it was later sold to Pleasure Foods, who in turn sold the chain to Famous Brands. In 2007 Famous Brands would go on to buy the struggling UK chain of Wimpy restaurants as well.

Since then, extensive rebranding has taken place to unify the SA and UK brands. The bold red-and-white logo is complemented in the UK by ‘Mr Wimpy’ – a big-headed character in what looks like a beefeater outfit, with a red skirt, floppy red hat and medals. Somehow I don’t think we’ll be seeing him here, but then again, I don’t think Wimpy needs a mascot because its local ads are such a hit.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – when anything is possible

Humour is often used to great effect in advertising. The youth market is particularly open to a good laugh, and six years ago Opel raised eyebrows by making a series of wacky, crudely animated ads that focussed on the ‘fun’ aspects of owning a car. In fact, many of them didn’t even talk about the car – they were just silly, funny or weird.

The CorsaLite ads featured the ridiculous, absurd and wonderfully funny Raj Brothers, and the commercials that were produced over a decade ago still live on in our memories and YouTube because they were so distinctive and hilarious.

In the stuffy old days of advertising, car commercials were largely targeted at adults, and focussed strongly on benefits – like safety, fuel efficiency, power… the stuff that interests ‘Dad’. Fortunately advertisers came to their senses, and part of the big changes in automobile advertising was the idea that humour could feature in a car ad. Ten years ago the Raj Bros TV spots for CorsaLite were some of the most talked about ads of the time, because they were so unusual, and because they worked.

VW’s entry-level product, the Polo Vivo, is definitely aimed at the youth market, and although its sticker price is not the lowest on the market, it has the VW brand and sleek looks that set it apart from its peers. And then there’s the commercial campaign. The idea central to this clever and comedic campaign: “Wouldn’t it be awesome if the unlikely and improbable could come true? Well if Volkswagen can make Polo Vivos available for such a crazy price, then who knows what other crazy things might happen…”

This ad takes place in the world of students: university. A dreamy looking young man is falling asleep in a class – which looks a lot like Advanced Calculus, given the cryptic scrawling on the board. The professor announces that this is an unsolvable equation. Our hero is woken by the prof, and blurts out what is clearly a guess: “Eleven”.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – the Robot with a Taste for Tea

Back in the ancient history of the internet (we’re talking 1982 here), four students at Carnegie Mellon University designed the first ‘internet appliance’ – an internet-accessible vending machine. The story goes that these computer science students were working quite far from the departmental cold-drink vending machine, and would have to deal with frustration and disappointment when, having made the trek across the campus to get a cold beverage, they would find either an empty machine or one that was filled with warm drinks.

So the people others would say were ‘geeks’, but whom I’d call pure genius, got together and hacked a solution. They installed sensors in the vending machine that interfaced with their departmental mainframe, a DEC PDP-10. From then on, these four students could be anywhere in the world and by merely using a program called Finger they could to get the vending machine to tell them exactly how many drinks were available, and how cold they were. To appreciate the marvel of this, we’re talking a time when most people had faxes.

The very first internet-accessible vending machine spawned many successors, making it—in effect—the first ‘internet meme’: vending machines in campuses across America, coffee pots being watched by webcams, a toilet being watched by a webcam (a gag – this was just a single pic, so nobody’s privacy was invaded) . Oh, the fun that was had in the days of the Arpanet (aka the pre-Internet).

Well, times have moved on and the internet has changed. Now we have Twitter. And yes, vending machines have evolved too: they have LED displays, soft lighting and wonderful clear-glass fronts, so we can watch the robot arm as it reaches up to the correct place and collects our desired beverage (or snack) for us.

In our modern era, we also have clever marketers who don’t miss a trick, like BOS’ digital agency Cow Africa, who were asked to come up with an original marketing tool to persuade people to try the product out.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – How’s it Hangin’?

Sex. The fact is, most teenagers do it, and varsity is the place where most people leaving their teens can first be open about experimenting, discussing and learning about sex and relationships. As young adults, varsity students are able to express their sexuality more openly amongst their peers.

That’s why Durex actively targets this segment, using ‘youth media’ like MTV, YouTube, and Facebook, and sponsoring youth events whilst also engaging in sample campaigns on campuses. Early adoption means a better chance of brand loyalty and of committing to safe sex.

Durex is an acknowledged masterbrand, and the name is a generic term for the condoms in much of Europe, the UK, Japan and SA. In the US and Canada the condom market is still dominated by Trojan, although Durex has been chipping away at this market share over the years.

Despite everything we know about safe sex today, selling condoms to youngsters is still a hard sell (if you’ll forgive the obvious pun).

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – switch off the lights

The big switch off is part of The Earth Hour campaign, which has been running since 2007 and was conceived by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with the help of the Leo Burnett Company. Aimed at creating awareness of the impact the consumption of power by human beings is having on all the other inhabitants of this planet; this WWF inspired campaign encourages homes and businesses to switch off non-essentials and to think about the need for all of us to take action on climate change.

Held on March 23, 2013 from 20h30 to 21h30 during the local time of participating countries, the first event in Sydney saw some 2.2 million locals down under switching off non-essential lights.

Under the slogan “Uniting people to protect the planet”, this year Earth Hour began in Uganda, a state where 6000 hectare of forest is destroyed each month. The WWF in that country pegged 2,700 hectares of degraded land that it challenged government, business and citizens to repopulate with about 500,000 trees. In Botswana the country’s former president, Festus Mogae took up the challenge by promising to plant 100,000 trees in a local region where land has been compromised, called Goodhope.

Earth Hour 2013 CEO and Co-Founder Andy Ridley said acts like this were by no way extraordinary: “People from all walks of life, from all nations around the world, are the lifeblood of the Earth Hour interconnected global community. They have proven time and time again that if you believe in something strongly enough, you can achieve amazing things. These stories aren’t unique, this is happening all over the world.”

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – When a brand invests in the human spirit

When we think of the exemplars of the human spirit, it’s easy to think of sporting heroes, artists and other remarkable people who have truly excelled. One’s mind easily turns to extraordinary South Africans like multi-award winning paralympic swimmer Natalie du Toit; or the internationally acclaimed singer Miriam Makeba; or renowned author and anti-apartheid activist, Alan Paton. Then there’s the man who suffered greatly but overcame to lead a nation and in the process became a global icon – Nelson Mandela.

All these people have something in common: a spirit of determination to persevere, to overcome and to triumph. These are the kinds of role models we hope our children will emulate. But there are other, more everyday heroes, whose successes don’t always play out on a public stage.

Recently I heard a story from a friend who stopped at a garage near Estcourt, and happened to pull up alongside a KZN hospital outpatient bus. Whilst filling her tank, she watched as the emergency worker helped an old man with Parkinson’s up the bus’s narrow stairs. One slow step at a time, the man painstakingly climbed the vehicle’s stairs to take his seat.

All the other pensioners in the bus were grumbling and impatient, waiting to be taken to the local hospital timeously for their check-ups and medical visits. It must have taken at least 15 minutes for the man to board, but not once did the medical employee show any sign of impatience. He just calmly and compassionately supported the old man, as they worked to achieve a common objective.