When it comes to winning the hearts of the great British public,
there’s no beating the Andrex puppy. J. Walter Thompson has handed the
account to FCB since the last time the campaign was featured in the
People’s Jury, but little else has changed: the new execution, in which
a small boy falls off a toilet, is the people’s favourite ad of the
month, just as JWT’s final effort for the client was in October of last
year.
However, JWT can take comfort for the loss of such a popular advertising
property in the highly creditable performance of its Colman’s Sauces ad,
starring a cuddly, but ultimately doomed pig. The lesson is clear: if
you want an appealing advertising campaign, stick a cute animal in it.
Even if it’s for a sauce that you eat with meat.
Each month, Campaign selects 20 brands that have new TV ads, or old
executions, back on air and asks two groups of 500 viewers what they
think of the advertising (ten brands per group). Those jurors who can
remember each ad give it a mark out of ten and we then rank the
commercials by their mean score (see table above). The panel (right)
indicates the five brands the jurors would be most likely to buy or
use.
It’s extremely unusual for the same ad to top both polls and completely
unheard of for the top two to be replicated - but that’s what’s happened
this month. A whopping 72 per cent of jurors said they would seriously
consider using Andrex in future, while 57 per cent said the same about
Colman’s Sauces. There’s hope for the pig, yet, though. Only 28 per cent
of the jurors quizzed about the British Meat and Livestock Commission ad
for pork mince said they would consider buying it. Sadly, however, they
didn’t say anything about not buying pork chops to eat with Colman’s
apple sauce. Sorry, pig.
The appeal of the Spice Girls seems to be on the wane. Ogilvy & Mather’s
Impulse Spice ad, in which the girls parade apparently naked in the
street (until the final shot reveals them to be wearing strapless tops
and, for reasons not explained, no shoes) scored only 5.7 with jurors.
Strangely, it was more popular with the over-55s, who gave it 6.0, than
with 15- to 34-year-olds, who thought it worth only 5.8. The miserable
cynics in the 35- to 54-year-old age group dismissed those flashing
eyes, bared shoulders and curling lips with a derisory 5.3.
This was the same score awarded to Ferrero Rocher’s celebrated
’ambassador’s party’ commercial. When Campaign broke the news earlier
this month that Ferrero was reviewing its advertising, there was talk of
mounting a campaign to save the ad that’s so bad it’s brilliant. It had
the second highest recall of the ads featured this month but, perhaps
not surprisingly, it polarised opinions.
Seven per cent of those who knew the ad gave it 10 out of 10 and 37 per
cent gave it seven or more; however, a further 12 per cent thought it
worth just 1 out of 10, with 38 per cent giving it 4 or less.
Young people who eschew the ad still like the product. The 15- to
34-year-olds gave the ad an average mark of only 4.2 (as opposed to 6.9
from the over-55s), but half of them said they were likely to buy the
product in the future. We reckon they really like the ad, too.
They’re just in denial.
Audience Selection carried out the telephone interviews between 7 and 9
November, selecting 1,000 adults who represent a cross section of the
population by age, class, sex and geography
SELECTED ADS: NOVEMBER 1997
Rank Ad campaign Agency Points
1 Andrex toilet tissue FCB 7.3
2 Colman’s Sauces J. Walter Thompson 6.7
3= British Airways M&C Saatchi 6.4
3= Saab 9-5 Lowe Howard-Spink 6.4
5 Johnson’s Pledge FCB 6.0
6 Sure Ammirati Puris Lintas 5.9
7= Honda Civic CDP 5.7
7= Nurofen McCann-Erickson 5.7
7= Impulse Spice Ogilvy & Mather 5.7
7= Royal Mail Business Bates Dorland 5.7
11 Old Spice Alternative Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper 5.6
12= British Gas Trading BMP DDB 5.4
12= British Meat and Livestock BMP DDB 5.4
12= NatWest credit cards Bartle Bogle Hegarty 5.4
15= Burger King double supreme Ammirati Puris Lintas 5.3
15= Comfort vitality Ogilvy & Mather 5.3
15= Energy Saving Trust Saatchi & Saatchi 5.3
15= Ferrero Rocher Overseas agency 5.3
19 Prudential Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO 5.1
20 The Times Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe 5.0
Source: Audience Selection. Further information and copies of the full
results are available. Tel 0171-608 3618
