The People’s Jury this month proved just how wrong Campaign’s
journalists can be. Our jurors continue to give the thumbs-up to Bartle
Bogle Hegarty’s Levi’s work, a recent Campaign Turkey of the Week. But
they are unimpressed by Martin Skinner, the abrasive star of TBWA GGT
Simons Palmer’s COI Euro campaign, which was - yes - a Campaign Pick of
the Week.
Every month, Campaign lists the top 20 new ads with the highest ratings.
These are then put to our jury, who are asked to give each a mark out of
ten: from one (did not like at all) to ten (loved).
It was a hung jury this month, with three ads - CDP’s Honda commercial,
BBH’s Levi’s ad and the latest Rowntree’s Rolo commercial from J. Walter
Thompson - in joint first place on 6.6 points.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Levi’s ad proved particularly popular among
the over-55s, suggesting that the brand’s trendy image could be slipping
a little. But then, the Rowntree’s Rolo commercial starring the Lone
Ranger and his trusty steed, Silver, got its highest score among women
aged 55-plus, which just goes to show that there’s no accounting for
tastes.
Fourth place was shared by Tesco’s ’home alone’ ad from Lowe
Howard-Spink, starring a beleaguered Jane Horrocks and FCB’s Kleenex for
Men commercial, both of which scored a respectable 6.3 points. The
distinctly unmasculine Kleenex for Men ad, in which the three Kleenex
women discuss the virtues shared by men and tissues (’strong’, ’thick’,
’easy to pick up’) appealed to women more than men.
But the news was not so good for Vernons Lotteries, which launched its
latest football-based game, Vernons Easy Play, with a pounds 5 million
campaign through BMP DDB. The ads scored just 5.5 points overall. New
Vernons ads, featuring the footballer, Vinnie Jones, promise better.
TBWA’s Euro ad for the COI scored just 4.9 points, making it only
slightly more popular than this month’s lowest-scoring commercial, for
the Model Ship partwork magazine. Either the humour went over our
jurors’ heads or the bullying boss pastiche was just too close to
reality.
We asked two additional questions this month. After all the hype
surrounding the launch of digital television, we decided to check out
where the viewing public stood on the subject. Asked whether they
welcomed the arrival of digital television, more than a quarter of
respondents said they didn’t but 52 per cent said they did. Men in the
younger age group proved most enthusiastic, with 62 per cent of male
respondents and 70 per cent of 15- to 34-year-olds welcoming digital
TV.
Following a call for party political broadcasts to be shorter, we asked
our jurors whether they thought party political broadcasts should be
more like ads. A majority of 54 per cent agreed.
So the message from the people’s jury is clear: the viewing public wants
more television channels and less politics on them.
Audience Selection carried out the interviews by telephone between 25
September and 27 September with 1,000 adults from a representative
cross-section of the population.
LEADING QUESTIONS
Yes No Don’t
know
Q1 Do you welcome the
arival of digital television? 52% 29% 19%
Q2 Should party political
broadcasts be more like adverst? 54% 40% 6%
TOP 20 ADS
Rank Ad campaign Agency Points
1= Honda CDP 6.6
1= Levi Strauss & Co Bartle Bogle Hegarty 6.6
1= Rowntree’s Rolo J. Walter Thompson 6.6
4= Tesco Lowe Howard-Spink 6.3
4= Kleenex for Men FCB 6.3
6 Vaseline Deodorant McCann-Erickson 6.2
7 Amex Blue Ogilvy & Mather 6.1
8 Boots No7 St Luke’s 6.0
9= Surf Liquid Ammirati Puris Lintas 5.9
9= Anchor So Soft Saatchi & Saatchi 5.9
9= McCain Home Fries DMB&B 5.9
12 Curry’s M&C Saatchi 5.6
13= McDonald’s Double Deluxe Leo Burnett 5.5
13= Ribena Tooth Kind Grey 5.5
13= Vernons Pools BMP DDB 5.5
16 Vision Express Ammirati Puris Lintas 5.4
17= Vodafone BMP DDB 5.3
17= PC World M&C Saatchi 5.3
19 COI Euro Preparation TBWA GGT Simons Palmer 4.9
20 Model Ship partwork In-house 4.3
Source: Audience Selection Tel: 0171-608 3618
