A website for teenagers and twentysomethings is launching into the
UK with advertising which asks: ’Don’t understand it? You’re too
old.’
Mud dancing inspired by the Glastonbury Festival and the fad for showing
off designer underwear are featured in the pounds 2 million campaign to
support the arrival of ebop.
The work is the first to be produced by Barrett Cernis Delves & Partners
since the agency picked up the creative assignment on the account in
August.
The site’s name is being established through a poster and youth press
campaign along with three 40-second commercials which will break on MTV
and in cinemas this Friday alongside The Blair Witch Project.
Media is being bought by New PHD Compass.
Inspired by design features of sophisticated US websites, ebop offers
information on music, clubs, films, books, fashion and food for its core
market of 16- to 24-year-olds.
The copywriter, Andy Imrie, and his art director, Ray Barrett, the
agency’s creative partners, produced the ads, which mirror the language
and style of youth culture.
One of the commercials - directed by Barry Skolnick through RSA -
features two young men greeting each other with hugs and hand slaps,
while one of the posters takes its cue from skateboarding jargon.
Their appearance follows intensive research by the agency among club DJs
and teenagers themselves.
Justin Cernis, the agency’s managing partner, said: ’We wanted to get it
right rather than do what we thought was clever.
’It’s easy to get it badly wrong when trying to talk to the youth
market.’