Dadvertising - Mum's Not Dead Honest.

It's finally happened. 

Fathers, at last, after burning our papooses at Westminster we've battled our way into the public consciousness, we're being represented in non-tragic scenarios and it feels great.

Dad's have at last become a worthwhile adverting proposition for products other than toiletries and power tools. We have created a new breed of advert that a picks a hole at the notion 'Mum does all the shopping' and finally recognises that Dad does a bit as well, our hard work has lead to the long awaited birth of 'Dadvertising'.

The first strike in our campaign was the below advert for Sainsburys

I really liked this advert from the start, the first time I saw it, it was shot beautifully, the music was great, and without being overly sentimental, it managed to intelligently steer a path through real situations that a father aspires to share with his son.

In fact, it made me feel so happy to see a father and son interacting this way that I was sure it was going to be a Cancer Research advert and the Dad was going to turn out to be a ghost. Such is the way advertisers have ignored us for so long.

OK, so maybe the message is secretly aimed at mums, and, at the end when the Mum pokes her head around the door is probably backs that up. Personally, I think that last scene devalues the ad a little, but, you can almost hear panicked Account Managers saying; "WHAT IF EVERYONE THINKS THE MUM IS DEAD!", which is why these kinds of ads never happen, but nobody ever wonders if Dad's dead when they see Mum washing little Timmy's clothes do they?

The depiction of a Father-Son relationship like this for a major retailer that has no motive other than to sell groceries is a bold step, and one that genuinely warmed my heart, this was the first big success for Dadvertising, there are more and my favourite will follow on Wednesday.

Let us know what you think? Are Dadverts going to take over TV, is the word 'Dadvert' annoying you?

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07738 175 614

Talk the Line

Right, we want to set up a brand, and we want to inspire such blind loyalty to it that people will queue up for every new product launch, they'll entertain openly being verbally abused by passers by, and they'll wait there for 5 hours, for no perceived advantage other than the experience of buying it from one of our stores (even though they could stroll into John Lewis or Argos and pick one up).


So, how do you do this? I'm not exactly sure, but last week I experienced it first-hand and although I felt partly ashamed at the beginning, by the end I was fully onboard with the whole experience. Eventually the whole drama of the precision orchestrated occasion actually had me pitying a passing couple who'd just bought their iPad straight off the counter in John Lewis, 'idiots'. In retrospect I have no idea how I could have been this brainwashed. It's frankly embarrassing.

The queue itself was fascinating, lots of snorted laughs, iPhones, and alive with ideas about how to reduce a queue everybody seemed to be enjoying. What nobody seemed to consider was, Apple had us just where they wanted us, a living, breathing, snorting, Tweeting advert for the iPad.

While everyone in the queue was busy Tweeting and FBing their queue stories they're generating content for Apple. People walking past the queue filming 'the nerds' on their phones are all generating content for Apple. People asking what the queue was for, was another great message for Apple, they all found out. All of this precisely orchestrated, and importantly free, exposure creates a buzz around the launch that, you could pay for, but when you're Apple you don't have too.

Now, I'm not a maniac, I'm not blindly loyal to Apple, and I'll gladly switch to another brand, the day someone else starts making products that fit into my life better, and work in a simple way, that works for me, but at the moment there's nothing close, and those excited people in that queue were testament to that. The 3DS was launched that day as well, I could see Game from my plot in the queue, and you wouldn't have know it.

So how do you build a brand that inspires such great loyalty? It's easy, you brainwash millions of people by slipping drugs into the free coffee and muffins you give them as they queue up for your new products. Easy.




Contact Citizen on ben@citizenstudios.co.uk or visit the site at www.citizenstudios.co.uk