Paul Catmur: Mmm ... it may all be much simpler than we think

A scene from Colenso BBDO's Trumpet 'Undies'.

Campaign: Tip Top - Trumpet "Undies"
Agency: Colenso BBDO
Creative team: Dave Govier and Levi Slavin
Reviewer: Paul Catmur, DDB executive creative director

New Zealand needs more ads like Trumpet "Undies".

It's watchable, funny, memorable and, yes, even sells the product.

It is one of the country's most popular ads and I am reliably informed by Colenso BBDO that the campaign has revitalised the brand (they are an advertising agency and, therefore, never lie).

Of course, like most good ads, it breaks many of the rules of advertising by which we as practitioners are all too frequently restrained.

There is no product build shot where paint, masquerading as chocolate, is delicately poured over moulded resin ice-cream and drizzled with plastic nuts; there is no eating shot where a model takes a bite, licks her lips in ecstasy and then spits the lot into a bucket just off camera; there is no 30-second monologue extolling superiority over every other product ever made; and, heretically to many, the hero of the ad is ridiculed.

I have a nagging feeling advertising may be far simpler than we like to make out.

People have been so disappointed so often by product claims, they just don't believe them any more. Why should they, when they've been lied to so constantly and with such fervour for centuries?

Whenever you buy something (particularly something important - a car, a house, a mortgage) it's vital that you like the person selling it. Our task is to make people like us enough to try the product, then it's up to the product to deliver.

People like the Trumpet ads because they reward them for sitting quietly for 30 seconds. It also helps that it's a nice product, something that's frequently glossed over by eager marketing departments.

I keep hearing people referring to a style of ads as brave. What they actually mean is not the usual ads I see on TV every night. Well, the majority of TV ads are, as consumers keep telling us, not to be imitated. Dull, repetitive, patronising, the only reason they're tolerated is that many of the programmes are as bad and sometimes it can be a struggle to raise yourself from the sofa.

Personally, I don't think it's brave to run ads that entertain people and increase sales. I think it's our job as advertisers and people. Let's do what we can to make it happen more often.

* Each week, the Business Herald asks an advertising industry figure to nominate the best (or worst) locally produced campaign they've seen recently - not from their agency - and explain why.