Published on
September 24, 2024
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Welcome to the Breakdown, a weekly roundup of the best real-life marketing examples, created for marketers and agency folk that want to create work that actually works.
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In this Breakdown, we're looking at ✨ fear ✨ - ads that specifically challenge an opinion or generally held belief in order to win bigger with their actual customers.
No, it’s not the Stanford Prison Experiment.
It’s Big Brother.
I will never not be slightly horrified by the name of the show. But this new ad launching the new season takes that horror and turns it cute. Very cute.
For 60 seconds, we watch 16 guinea pigs mooch around a miniature replica of the Big Brother house, under the watchful eyes of presenters AJ Odudu and Will Best and all of us at home.
It’s a spectacular metaphor / pun. I love that there is no shying away from the fact that there is something macabre in conducting essentially a televised experiment with human subjects every year. They are guinea pigs, and we all love it.
I also love that I am 100% certain that ITV could create a mini-series exclusively about these guinea pigs in the mini-house and attract a decent-sized audience.
No, the ad is not full of action, which at first seemed weird to me. Some of the most memorable Big Brother moments are when tempers flare, arguments spill over, or when a case of mistaken identity leaves someone thinking a fellow contestant has died. But this ad captures one of the most absorbing parts of the show, that fans genuinely enjoy. It feeds that creepy, voyeurish instinct that we hate to like. On top of that, it plays with this insight without calling all of us creepy voyeurs. Big thumbs up. 👍
That was meant to be Danny Boyle joke.
The new film in his series is coming out soon. Apparently it’s the most expensive movie to ever be shot on an iPhone (side note, the ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign has a massive free win coming its way).
But until it does hit cinemas, Woolmark have sated our zombie thirst with this corker of an ad.
The insight - wool breaks down. This is a good thing. Now that is a lovely bit of tension to play with.
And then the execution. Oh my, the execution, Whoever decided to turn this ad into a zombie film deserves many awards. It’s genius.
The ad closes with a chilling message - “Every synthetic garment ever made still exists in some form.” Like zombie clothing, it '“haunts” our planet. Enter a quiet, terrifying zombie invasion of synthetic clothes. You need to watch it to get what I mean:
World War Z is not the best zombie movie by a long, long shot - but something so unforgettable that they did so well is the utter terror of a thousands upon thousands of zombies hurtling through cities. There’s a specific physicality to the horror. And this ad replicates that brilliantly. The way the clothes collapse and pile up, the way they seem so all-encompassing and swarming, the fear that there are already too many to do anything about it. This ad is excellent as a piece of storytelling. It’s excellent as a piece of messaging. It’s excellent at doing a category job. I wonder for a moment if it is as excellent at promoting the brand itself.
Is your meal deal choice a bad one?
Right, I know that’s not the way this ad was conceived, in all likelihood. Tesco have both the data and vocal customer base to know that people are very particular about their meal deal selections.
But, having had the exact conversation about what constitutes a good Tesco meal deal this very week, there is a real fear in being judged for what you pick. It stems, I think, from the fact that so many of the options are truly gross. And this ad leans into them.
Don’t believe me? Watch it -
- and then tell me that the body builder guy isn’t getting absolutely flamed by everyone he knows for buying the single, packaged, cold boiled egg. Forget the protein, that is actually rancid.
Yeah, ok, your money probably says this ad was not built on fear. It was probably built on the insight that people are picky and idiosyncratic about their meal deal, and the Tesco meal deal is enough of an established ‘thing’ that people’s pickiness makes sense to many people. But loads of brands have these ‘things’. Anyone that allows for customisation (Subway, all pizza places ever, even whether or not you keep the subtitles on Netflix). Something they rarely do is acknowledge that you can make a bad choice. And that you can feel shame for it. This ad just feather-touches on that fear. And I like it.
(FYI, I’m a hoisin duck wrap, McCoys ‘anything-but-salt-and-vinegar’, and Pepsi Max guy. In case you want to send a meal deal over to Briefly HQ)