Sunday night seems always to be the night that new TV ad campaigns are launched.
One is the Erin Brockovich Noel Leeming “Real Deal” effort, and the other was the Ford Mondeo “Make Room” campaign.
It’s interesting that both the companies and the ad agencies think that both these TVC’s are going to be effective.
Erin Brockovich might be a household name to movie goer’s – or she was 7 years ago when the movie bearing her name was released, starring Julia Roberts. I can’t see the connection between a woman who campaigned against the contamination of drinking water, and a commercial business that sells whiteware and electrical goods. So I’m skeptical, and cynical about this campaign from the start, even though the real Erin says she agreed only to front the campaign if she could say what she wanted.
Then there’s the Mondeo TVC for Ford shown here with commentary by the director.
YouTube
Sugar and I sat there trying to guess what they were trying to sell. I guessed a new fuel (it had an air of BP about it)…Sugar guessed a new Sony ad, since it involves lots of coloured balloons (like the bouncing balls and the splashing paint campaigns Sony has recently executed).
Wrong – it’s a very London based ad (they’ve realised that All Blacks aren’t selling cars at the moment) which shows old cars floating away by way of balloon, ‘making room’ for the new Mondeo. It was way too ethereal…but then I’m just the guy they’re trying to sell to aren’t I? So what do I know?
On another more positive note, Click Suite (where I am an Account Manager) was part of the team that won Best of Show for the RaboPlus campaign at the Effies (Advertising Effectiveness Awards). The campaign was led by Ogilvy (Auckland). Click Suite is the online agency.
I’m sure there’s more to come on the Noel Leeming Brockovich campaign – she just wouldn’t lend her name to them unless they could live up to her standards, or at leaat try. I know she won that Hinkley case but if you read her website she’s become a full-on consumer advocate for many causes since.
I read Noel Leeming recycle all their packaging and are trying to reduce their power consumption by 10%, so that might be why they’re using Erin?
I imagine you are right. Let’s wait and see. I guess if they needed to start the campaign with a bang they didn’t.
How many punters know who Erin Brockovich is? Do a straw poll and they don’t know the name of the leader of the opposition!