When you’re marketing Quebec’s number one pharma chain, what is your motivation?
In the case of BOS, and its campaign for Jean Coutu, the idea was to shore up this lead against fierce drug retail competition by forging an even stronger and more personal identity with its clientele. One guiding insight was the fact that it’s the only drugstore with a real name, all the others are pharma-something or something-prix. BOS partner André Beauchesne explains: ‘We were trying to create an identity, against competition like Wal-Mart, that was sympathetic to consumers.’
And that they did. The three-spot campaign plays on the name Jean Coutu in various funny scenarios. One, shot in Paris, features a young backpacker innocently asking some oldster locals where to find Jean Coutu. A long-winded and winding debate ensues, joined in by a woman yelling from her window, all of which centres on the whereabouts of a person, rather than a store.
A similar mishap goes down in customs. In an English- and French-language spot, a chap declaring himself to be Jean Coutu is then pestered with pharma-related questions by the customs officer. Suspicion ensues when he tries to explain he isn’t that Jean Coutu, and when last we see our intrepid traveller, he’s in interrogation, wearily repeating his story.
Nice acting is also captured in the final spot, wherein a couple name their baby Jean Coutu, to the consternation of their friends: ‘C’est un bon nom, Jean Coutu – juste…que…pour une fille?’
The spots will run until Christmas, at which time either new ones will sub in, or the same three will get an extended run.
client: Danielle Laberge, principal director advertising and national creative, Jean Coutu
CD/AD/director: Roger Gariepy
CW: Hugo Leger
account director: Sylvie Créte
prodco: Jet Films
