Marketing Magazine - Adwatch 09.02.11
Tongue-in-cheek humour shows the drinks brand is still burnishing its child-like charm
Steve Hastings, Planning partner, isobel
Once upon a time, in Hundred Acre Wood, lived Christopher Robin and his friends. They had great fun making drinks and smoothies from all the beautiful things nature provided there.
Eventually, these drinks, now in little bottles, made their way onto the shelves of retail stores. There was some advertising. There was some voting-by-bottle. There was some knitting of woolly hats and the haphazard activity of a small group of friends having fun.
Christopher Robin’s drinks were so popular that the big makers of brown, sugared water swooped down and gave him enough money to buy a hundred hundred-acre woods. Now Not-so-Innocent had an army of pointy-headed MBAs looking at its business model, applying analysis and marketing disciplines in order to sell more of its stuff.
The pointy-heads said: ‘Now is the time to target by occasion, by need-state, by getting into our consumers’ lives and showing them when our good stuff is relevant.
‘Oh, and we must not forget to remind people of all the fruity natural stuff in the bottle. And to suggest our smoothies are a food replacement, not a drink replacement.’
So, we arrive at this commercial. We see our superhero smoothie flying around, trying to rescue people from bad snack habits. We see people at weak moments, eating stuff they shouldn’t - a fizzy drink and a big, evil, pastry pillow at a bus stop; the klutzy office snacker and his biscuits; the nice bloke on the train and his cardboard sandwich; and a young lady tempted by shiny cakes layered with sugary icing.
Each time our superhero appears, it is heralded by the hook from the Queen track, Flash - but changed to ‘Fruit - ah - ah!’ instead.
Aah, you say, far too much of a mirror on life to be interesting. Yet the ad works. Yes, it’s tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top. Yes, it has hammy effects, with the strings and props showing. It is full of self-references throughout, such as when the newspaper billboard screams ‘Unidentified Fruity Object’.
However, it’s also funny. It makes people laugh and it has Brian Blessed doing the voiceover.
Most importantly for the brand, this is an ad that Coca-Cola simply would not make.
Only the Innocent can so clearly show intent and share the jokes. Only the Innocent can prove the devil doesn’t have all the good tunes. And one day, Innocent will be Coke.
Marketing Magazine - Adwatch 09.02.11
Tongue-in-cheek humour shows the drinks brand is still burnishing its child-like charm
Steve Hastings, Planning partner, isobel
Once upon a time, in Hundred Acre Wood, lived Christopher Robin and his friends. They had great fun making drinks and smoothies from all the beautiful things nature provided there.
Eventually, these drinks, now in little bottles, made their way onto the shelves of retail stores. There was some advertising. There was some voting-by-bottle. There was some knitting of woolly hats and the haphazard activity of a small group of friends having fun.
Christopher Robin’s drinks were so popular that the big makers of brown, sugared water swooped down and gave him enough money to buy a hundred hundred-acre woods. Now Not-so-Innocent had an army of pointy-headed MBAs looking at its business model, applying analysis and marketing disciplines in order to sell more of its stuff.
The pointy-heads said: ‘Now is the time to target by occasion, by need-state, by getting into our consumers’ lives and showing them when our good stuff is relevant.
‘Oh, and we must not forget to remind people of all the fruity natural stuff in the bottle. And to suggest our smoothies are a food replacement, not a drink replacement.’
So, we arrive at this commercial. We see our superhero smoothie flying around, trying to rescue people from bad snack habits. We see people at weak moments, eating stuff they shouldn’t - a fizzy drink and a big, evil, pastry pillow at a bus stop; the klutzy office snacker and his biscuits; the nice bloke on the train and his cardboard sandwich; and a young lady tempted by shiny cakes layered with sugary icing.
Each time our superhero appears, it is heralded by the hook from the Queen track, Flash - but changed to ‘Fruit - ah - ah!’ instead.
Aah, you say, far too much of a mirror on life to be interesting. Yet the ad works. Yes, it’s tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top. Yes, it has hammy effects, with the strings and props showing. It is full of self-references throughout, such as when the newspaper billboard screams ‘Unidentified Fruity Object’.
However, it’s also funny. It makes people laugh and it has Brian Blessed doing the voiceover.
Most importantly for the brand, this is an ad that Coca-Cola simply would not make.
Only the Innocent can so clearly show intent and share the jokes. Only the Innocent can prove the devil doesn’t have all the good tunes. And one day, Innocent will be Coke.
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