Mid Year TV Adverts: wrap up post
Everyone loves a good TV ad don’t they? We’re now just over halfway through the year and although there have been a whole host of feel good, poignant ads- we’ve chosen seven to look back on.
January: Just Eat We Got It
January kicked off with a fun Just Eat campaign, aiming to show that Just Eat is the place to go for all your food needs.
The campaign celebrates the breadth and relevance of Just Eat’s iconic restaurant offerings and plays on the recurrent theme of highly personalised consumer targeting.
From national super-brands, to small chains, all the way to local dine-in delivered restaurants, the message was clear: Just Eat delivers the broadest range of restaurants and the best value to its customers.
It was created by Ben Buswell and Jo Griffin and directed by Finn Keenan out of Riff Raff, and shows ‘ a brilliantly cheeky observation of those ‘personal’ targeted commercials. A nod that we’re all a bit over that ,“we know you better than you know yourself” approach.’ The campaign took the idea of those over friendly ads and doubled down on how ridiculous they can be.
February- WaterAid ‘The Girl Who Built a Rocket’
In the second month of the year, when there were two Mars missions preparing for take off, in search of water on the planet, WaterAid have embarked on a journey to adapt their advertising, and The Girl Who Built a Rocket was a step towards that.
Taking inspiration from real stories, they worked with creative agency Don’t Panic and colleagues in Madagascar to create our animated film, The Girl Who Built A Rocket, with a voice-over by Sir Trevor McDonald. It was a way of communicating a very real need for action with WaterAid pointing our attention back to the fact that a staggering 785 million people – (that’s 1 in 10) who still don’t have access to clean water.
March- Rightmove, The Renter
Fold7 create ‘The Renter’ with Rightmove, bringing to life the exciting possibilities that renting offers.. Renting is sometimes seen as the less preferable choice, when in fact there are many renters who enjoy the freedom it provides;
The Renter highlights this fact as it tells a tale of a woman who lives exactly as she chooses thanks to freedoms and flexibilities renting gives her. From living by the seaside, to being in the city, then moving to the countryside, the renter can try on different lives for size in order to “find what’s right for right now.”
April- NHS Hope
MullenLowe brought to life the ad set to What A Difference A Day Makes, and it follows the efforts of NHS workers and volunteers alike as the Covid-19 vaccine is rolled out nationwide. It shows people from all walks of life as they receive their vaccine, shortly before celebrating with a sticker. “Join the millions already vaccinated to protect yourselves and others,” the ad declares, prompting the tagline: “every vaccination gives us hope,” a very poignant and effective message.
It was created by Tom Hudson and directed by Bob Harlow through Blink.
May- Cadbury #ForTheLoveOfChocolate
By VCCP, the ad calls to the British public to show their support for independent high street chocolatiers. As lockdown restrictions began to ease and shops started to reopen, Cadbury asked customers to forego buying a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk and instead opt for a bar from an independent chocolate shop.
Cadbury itself originated as an independent chocolate shop on Birmingham’s Bull Street in 1824. Due to Cadbury's independent roots, the enforced closure s of shops inspired them to help independent chocolatiers stay open. The campaign reworked the ad, ‘Mum’s birthday’ where we see a little girl use toys to pay for a bar of chocolate- and instead replaces a Cadbury’s bar with an independent chocolatier’s bar. It was a clever move, and kept the heart-warming message of the ad as well.
June- BBC Creative, Let’s go There
BBC Creative launched their Tokyo 2020 Olympics trailer titled Let’s Go There, ahead of the channel’s coverage, which kicks off next month. The title itself refers to the pandemic, acknowledging that whilst it’s going ahead- people won’t be able to travel to be there in real time.
Tokyo hasn’t hosted the Olympics since 1964, and while this time might feel a little different – having already been delayed for a year – this promo hopes to create a buzz of excitement for people watching the coverage at home.
Created in-house with the help of Nexus Studios and director collective Factory Fifteen, the trailer sees Tokyo taken over by the Olympics with street signs, shops, arcades, Gashapon parlours, and a J-Pop music video crammed full of references to the Olympic sports, athletes and BBC presenters.
July- TFL 'Welcome back. Tube it. Bus it. Train it.'
This week, TFL invites passengers back on board packed carriages to resume activities and visit destinations that have been out of bounds for over a year. Communicated in a film directed by Simon Ratigan; the ad shows real passengers using the network to represent the reality of travel- as authentically as possible.
To mark the occasion of restrictions lifting, iconic signage roundels have been reworked to communicate the resumption of regular services with phrases such as 'Going out-out', 'drinks after work' and 'family days out' to encourage people to again embrace old habits. The ad brings with it the reminder of what we’ve not been able to do for over a year, and the bittersweet excitement from it is palpable.
See you in December for another wrap up!