Milking the humour

Drink milk or die. Sort of. BC Dairy’s new campaign by DDB Vancouver plays on a ‘survival of the fittest’ theme, depicting a caveman who is intrigued by beverages other than milk. Because he wastes his time inspecting a can of pop, for instance, he doesn’t see the dinosaur coming straight for him. He winds up flattened under T-rex’s foot like a piece of gum. One the other hand, those cavemen who drink milk survive, of course.

While the campaign includes print, outdoor, cinema and online elements, high-tech animation makes the TV spots the most fun. DDB’s creative team was impressed with a short film by Irish animation company Screen Scene, and had been waiting for an opportunity to work with them. ‘Dinosaurs squishing people – we thought it would be right for milk,’ copywriter James Lee explains jokingly. On a more serious note: ‘We’re trying to inject some more fun into the brand.’ The campaign’s primary target is youth.

Although the premise of pop-drinking cavemen being killed by dinosaurs is a bit absurd, Lee thinks the ads effectively capture the underlying message that milk is essential to the species: ‘We wanted to illustrate that point without being preachy, while at the same time elevating the coolness of the brand.’

The campaign’s Web site scores some cool points too – users can enter contests, sign up for ‘Second Chance Caveman’ updates, and even interact with the caveman by selecting interview clips with him.

The campaign, which launched May 2, is running in all

B.C. markets.

client: Robin Smith, executive director; Liz Gurszky, director of communications and market development; Jaimie Turkington, manager of marketing and communications, BC Dairy Foundation

CD: Alan Russell

copywriter: James Lee

AD: Dean Lee

agency producer: Sue Bell

account management: Svetlana Connolly

prodco: Zanita Films

director/editor: Ruairi Robinson

animation/SFX/post production: Screen Scene

audio/recording: Dick and Rogers

audio house producers: Marcel Duperreault, Todd Araki

Web site: Tribal DDB Vancouver

online CD: Bruce Sinclair

Hitchin’ a ride with VW

There’s something inherently funny about a goat hitching a ride up a mountain in an SUV. Montreal-based PALM Arnold plays up this and other amusing scenarios in three new print ads for Volkswagen Canada’s Touareg. The other instalments feature a kayaker getting a lift across a river, and an Eskimo powering his sled with the Touareg instead of dogs. The latter also doubled as an outdoor ad playing on the Quebec phrase ‘temps de chien’ – slang for winter storm.

CD Nicolas Dube says the campaign, which targets people who love outdoor activities, aims to demonstrate that the Touareg is equipped to handle the elements. At the same time, Dube hopes the ads provide a personal connection: ‘We try to tell a bit of a story about what the car can do in your life.’

The ads launched at the end of March in Quebec magazines like L’actualité and Velo Mag, and will run until late fall.

client: Amy Gushman, brand marketing manager, Volkswagen Canada

CD: Nicolas Dube

copywriter: Pascal De Decker

AD: Anik Ouellet

strategies: Connie Ponari, Frederique Delagrave

media: Claudette Valois

photographer: Francois Brunelle

Viagra scores again

Fore! Taxi delivers four strong new TV spots for Viagra, helping elevate the brand from being the butt of late night jokes to the funny guy at the party. These spots are laugh-out-loud funny, quite the feat for the typically staid, legally restricted pharmaceutical category. One spot features an old guy on the golf course, bragging to his friend about his sexual adventures. All the naughty bits are censored with a blue Viagra pill over the man’s mouth.

Two of the spots debuted April 11, and the other two on May 2.

client: Veronica Piacek, team leader; Wayne Havlena, product manager, Pfizer Canada

ECD: Zak Mroueh

associate CD: Lance Martin

copywriter: Irfan Khan

AD: Ron Smrczek

account director: Michelle Prowse

account manager: Christopher Andrews

agency planner: Maxine Thomas

agency producer: Jennifer Mete

production house: Partners’ Film Company

director: Joachim Back

executive producer: Gigi Realini

producer: Link York

DOP: Joaquin Baca-Asay

editor: Mick Griffin, Flashcut

music: The Eggplant

Risqué new spots from…Toyota?

Q: What do mother/daughter sex talk, lesbian teens and getting cut from the football team have in common?

A: Believe it or not, the latest Toyota TV spots.

Toyota Canada hopes the four new ads, by Saatchi & Saatchi Toronto, will help make the Camry and Corolla appealing on an emotional level. They’re based on the insight that people who buy Toyotas aren’t preoccupied with bells and whistles – they’re just looking for a car that will let them get on with life. The message works thanks to Toyota’s good track record with reliability.

The Camry spots, which support the car’s position as the ‘modern family sedan,’ depict parents and kids bonding on the road, as is often the case with real life. One spot shows a father cheering up his teenage son who’s just been cut from the football team. Dad knowingly points out the benefits of joining the running club – a plethora of athletic girls.

One of the new Corolla spots, meanwhile, featuring a father waiting to meet his daughter’s new boyfriend, has four different endings. In all versions, the father immediately gives his approval when he sees the ‘boyfriend’ drives a Corolla. The person behind the wheel changes in each ending; characters include a punk rocker, a nerd, triplets and even a girl. All four versions of the spot ran during the first episode of The Bachelor with Charlie O’Connell on March 28.

The spots are running across Canada on both specialty and regular networks.

Client: David Brimson, national manager, public relations & advertising, Toyota Canada

CD: Brett Channer

copywriters: Brett Channer, Simon Creet

ADs: Doug Bramah, Simon Duffy

agency producer: Anna Tricinci

prodcos: Imported Artists/Tool of North America

director: Erich Joiner

cinematographer: Mark Plummer

executive producer: Suzanne Allen

editor: Chris van Dyke, School Editing

online facility: Axyz, Toronto

music: Ted Rosnick, RMW Music; Tom Thorney, Vapor Music

More hot spots

Sico’s liquid paint ballet

Paint. And art. Together. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Yet many household paint ads tend to be more drab than fab. Longueuil, Que.-based paint manufacturer Sico is breaking that mould with its highly artistic new TV spots featuring footage from Simon Goulet’s award-winning cinepainting, OÏO.

Goulet’s cinepainting technique catapults paint into the air and films it in slow motion, capturing a collage of colourful, abstract forms. Sico sponsored Goulet’s project, which was 11 years in the making.

‘We’ve been working on the brand positioning ‘liquid inspiration’ for two years now,’ explains CD Marc-Andre Rivard, of Saint-Jacques Vallée Young & Rubicam. ‘When we saw the cinepainting, we knew it was a perfect fit.’

There are four 30-second spots, two English and two French. They’re set to two versions of the song ‘Tico Tico,’ synonymous with Sico paint in Quebec because of its ’80s jingle ‘Sico Sico.’ The spots run until June.

client: Dominique Pépin, senior brand manager, Sico

CD: Marc-André Rivard

copywriter: Martin Snape

AD: Manuel Ferrarini

senior account supervisor: Johanne Pelland

agency producer:

Christiane de Carufel

prodco: Amoniak Films

director: Simon Goulet

music composer:

Philippe Leduc

recording studio:

Studio Marko

You are cordially invited to submit your new, dead clever and previously unrevealed campaigns to: editorial director Mary Maddever at

sstanley@brunico.com‘>mailto:sstanley@brunico.com‘>sstanley@brunico.com, co-curators of strategy’s Creative space.