The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Nurofen Gives Me A Headache …

Alot of people think individuals who talk about ‘high production values’ are the sorts of tossers who only drink red wine, wear black turtlenecks, watch independent movies and dine on alfalfa sprouts or mung beans.

They think these people are arrogant, condescending and out-of-touch with what the general public needs … wants … appreciates.

Alot of clients also seem to think ‘production value’ translates to ‘agency making more money’ and are becoming more and more miserly with their budgets … whilst simultaneously being more and more demanding in their expectations.

Now while I’ve met some individuals who suit those character-assassination attributes … and there’s been more than one agency that has raped a client interms of production costs … the reality is that how communication ‘looks’ can have an incredible impact on how well it resonates with society.

Don’t get me wrong … I’m not advocating style over substance … nor am I saying clients should continually give in to spiralling production costs … and I am certainly not equating ‘high production value’ with cliché-driven ‘status’ communication … I am just saying that if you don’t appreciate the importance of ‘visual treatment’, you can end up with something like this …

For those who don’t know what it is … it’s supposed to be a ‘take’ on the Catherine Zeta-Jones / Sean Connery movie ‘ENTRAPMENT’ [which came out in 1999] … except they’ve used a fat chick with a J-Lo arse and the most convoluted ‘back pain’ shot ever. It makes Nurofen look like a cheaper-than-cheap ‘own-brand’ and demonstrates …

1 The client had a small budget

2 The client was told/felt it this ‘idea’ [used VERY loosely] only required a small budget

3 The agency didn’t realise this was a shit execution

4 The creatives forgot the importance of production value – so if the idea needs money to make it ‘work’ [and the client hasn’t got it] … it’s better to think of a new concept or try and increase the clients budget [which this idea obviously DOESN’T DESERVE] than to go ahead and produce this sort of monstrosity.

However, as Nurofen seem happy to produce god-awful, lowest-common-denominator-of-imagination work, I’ve come up with my own executions which I am more than happy for them to use for a fee – and I can be dammed sure it’ll cost a hell of a lot less than their agency charged them for this bollocks. 

Sort it out Nurofen – your ads shouldn’t give people a headache, unless that is part of some cunning sales strategy! Ha!

   

Mind you, whereas these are just some crappy spoofs from my crappy brain – a few years ago we did a rather fun [and controversial] ad for Panadol in India …

[The line say’s “ONE IS ENOUGH”]

Then there was the spot we shot in Oz which showed a queue of people waiting to drink from the Holy Water because they all said it made them feel so good … however when the camera panned upwards, you could see 10 monks dropping Panadol by the bucketload into the stream where the Holy water was taken from. 

Nice idea but got banned, hahaha!

So Nurofen and your agency … the ball is now in your court … up your game or face more shame! [… and that wasn’t supposed to rhyme!]

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