fbpx

How Kiwi brands commemorated Father’s Day 2014

Last Sunday once again marked the annual time of year when Kiwis are unified in an attempt to assuage some of the guilt associated with pretty much commandeering the word relaxation from the vocabularies of the nation’s fathers. And it does after all make sense, because once children enter the world, men’s lives change: sleeping in late becomes virtually impossible, prized possessions become ad-hoc teething soothers and monthly bills start to stretch in a way that defies all the rules of physics. 

Given that all children fortunate to have shared some living space with their parents could be guilty of such offenses, DDB used this as the premise for the release of its Father’s Day print ad for Speight’s, which features long copy configured into a calligram that takes the shape of a glass of beer.   

The ad essentially reads like a brief summary of some of the phases that children go through, placing emphasis on the things they do wrong, before offering a shared beer as a means to ameliorate some of harm caused over the years.     

And Speight’s was by no means the only brand to get involved in the Father’s Day action. Repco enlisted the services of All Blacks star Cory Jane for its Father’s Day-related ‘Dad of the Year’ campaign, which has seen his chiselled visage attached to much of the company’s advertising material over the last few weeks.

The Repco campaign, which kicked off mid-August, also included a competition that invited participants to nominate any dad of their choice by logging in through Facebook, submitting a photo and explaining why the dad was deserving of the title. Vetted entries were then uploaded to the site and people could vote on their favourite. The competition closed on 7 September and Repco is set to announce the winner in the near future.

    

Lotto NZ revisited familiar ground by re-launching its DDB-created Father’s Day spot from last year, which featured a collection of average Kiwi dads expressing their elation in slow motion. 

Tick For Kids, a not-for-profit consortium that aims to improve the lives of Kiwi children, released a short clip featuring Dai Henwood delivering a more serious message on the lasting impact that fathers’ actions leave on the nation’s children. Since its release, the campaign has bounced around Twitter as many supporting organisations—such as UNICEF and Amnesty International—have shared the message.    

Speaking of Twitter, Various other brands have also taken to the medium to share messages with fans. Spark’s new digital venture Lightbox took the humorous approach by sharing a dad joke, while Shortland  Street—following on from its memorial for a fictional character—continued to blur the lines between reality and TV by sharing family pics of onscreen relatives (we shudder to think what effect Oculus Rift technology might one day have on Shortland Street fans).  

 

And while most Father’s Day campaigns are light-hearted and generally well received, this year’s promotional push also carried a bit of controversy on its coattails. And this came in the shape of some questionable ad placement in the Dominion Post, which resulted in a full-page ad for Gun City appearing on the 11th page on the same day that the story on the WINZ shooting was on the front page.           

About Author

Avatar photo

One of the talented StopPress Team of Content Producers made this post happen.

Comments are closed.