In a world where attention is a currency, the sweet spot sometimes seems to be polarity. Let’s call it the Paul Henry effect, where some watch because of love, and some watch because of hate. That formula often applies to the world of advertising. And MasterCard’s recent efforts starring an over-zealous (and quite lucky) All Blacks fan called Tim are a good example of that in action. Now he’s back in his third appearance for the brand—and he’s as violating as ever.
Browsing: Adam Stevens
The Red Bull Stratos campaign, which saw madman Felix Baumgartner jump from a capsule approximately 39 kilometres above Earth, was one of the most watched brand-sponsored events in history. And Lion and DDB are attempting to do something similar, with a new campaign for Steinlager Pure that aims to drum up interest in Kiwi free diver William Trubridge and the upcoming effort to break his own world record of 101m.
A Dog’s Show lives on as a Kiwi classic, and it was recently referenced by Ford and JWT in a quirky Fieldays-related spot. And now Assignment Group and Adam Stevens of Robber’s Dog have done the same, with a 60 second ad that shows a humble house dog being inspired by his rural canine forebears and fuelled by a bellyful of Tux to achieve the seemingly impossible: herding cats.
The sibling rivalry, cruelty and dastardly power (tool) games seen in Stihl and DDB’s advertising first kicked off in 2009 with ‘Bequeathed’ and returned a few years later with ‘Mercy Dash’. And now the brothers are back in another campaign that asks Kiwis a difficult question: in a raging barn fire, would you save your cherished chainsaw or a cute little lamb?
While most Kiwi boaties now carry life jackets on their vessel, they’re only worn 70 percent of the time, largely due to an erroneous belief that they’ll be able to whip them out and put them on if they get into trouble. So Maritime NZ and DraftFCB have attempted to illustrate the ridiculousness of the carrying-but-not-wearing scenario by harnessing the immense power of the ‘80s buddy cop drama.
Last year, Mastercard, McCann Sydney and Robber’s Dog walked away with the top prize at the Fair Go Ad Awards for their ‘Tight on Tour’ spot. And Tim, the over-excited All Blacks ‘super-fan’, has been brought back to celebrate the launch of its contactless payment technology PayPass.
Adam Strange was killed in a shark attack as he swam off Muriwai beach last night, and tributes are flowing for a great father and husband and a talented artist and TVC director. Updated with trust account details.
State’s recent ‘My 3 Things’ campaign aimed to show Kiwi consumers the company was actually very nice, cared about your stuff and, quite perplexingly, was looking to find a way to insure the things that were uninsurable. Now DDB New Zealand and AMI Insurance have taken a similar—although more light-hearted and colloquial—approach with a new campaign and repositioning statement for the company that aims to show it ‘Insuring New Zealandness’.