Young & Rubicam has created its first work for Homepride cooking
sauces this week since taking the creative business from HHCL & Partners
at the start of the year.
The animated campaign, backed by an pounds 8 million spend, drops HHCL’s
idea of using real people from ethnic backgrounds but with strong
regional accents to promote the sauces. Instead, it relies on
Homepride’s spokesman, Fred the Flourgrader, and introduces a new
sidekick, Claude, a Cockney TV chef.
In the first 30-second ad, Claude is filming his cookery show in front
of a live TV audience. ’Right then,’ he tells the audience, ’here’s a
new one for you. It’s tasty, its exotic, it’s my own Balti curry.’
Fred, watching Claude’s programme from his seat in the audience, voices
his suspicions. ’Aha, that’s interesting,’ he mumbles. He wanders onto
the set and in front of the cameras to expose Claude’s trickery by
revealing cans of Balti cooking sauces hidden in the chef’s cupboard.
The ad ends with Claude banging his head on a giant can of Balti curry
in frustration, shouting ’Rumbled again!’. The endline reads: ’Trust
Homepride to make Balti brilliant.’
The ad was created at Y&R by the copywriter, Richard McGrann, and the
art director, Andy Clough. It was directed by Barry Joll through Barry
Joll & Associates. Animation was by Hibbert Ralph.
The commercial breaks nationally this week on terrestrial and satellite
TV.
Media planning and buying is through Zenith Media.
HHCL lost the Homepride account in January following the appointment of
Y&R to Campbell’s worldwide roster. Although HHCL had created some much
talked-about advertising in the three years it held the brand, the
account had been vulnerable since mid-1995 after the sale of Homepride
cooking sauces to the US-based Campbell’s.
Nigel Adams, the Y&R account director on Homepride, said: ’Our brief was
to bring Fred into the 90s so we have introduced a counterfoil to him in
the shape of Claude, the TV chef. Fred and Claude will run in future ads
for the foreseeable future.’
