The Star extends ‘There Will be Stories’ campaign with the launch of ‘Loungin’ TVC via The Monkeys
The first TVC The Star and The Monkeys have produced together under the ‘There Will be Stories’ campaign went to air last night.
Launching as both a 90 and 60, the playful anthem ‘Loungin’ features a specially rerecorded lounge performance of the classic Guns-n-Roses track ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. In the spot, we’re guided through The Star by a charismatic lounge singer and his piano on wheels, while a series of story fragments unfold in the background.
It’s the first of many planned projects for the brand in the upcoming year, and builds on the previously successful campaign launch last September.
Says Iris Kleimann, General Manager of Marketing at The Star: “The Star is an entertainment destination, so we believe that our communications must be engaging and entertaining also. This spot achieves this beautifully, as we hoped it would.”
The film, shot on location by Revolvers’ Steve Rogers, is the first work for the brand under the watch of new Monkeys creative partner Micah Walker.
“The client and agency already had a great campaign thought with ‘There will be Stories’ before I came along,” Walker said. “We just had to reintroduce that idea to the public in film. It’s not often you get to make something as fun as this, for something as fun as The Star.”
Agency: The Monkeys
ECD: Justin Drape
Creative Partner: Micah Walker
Art Director: Matt Heck
Copywriter: Alex Derwin
Head of Broadcast: Thea Carone
Group Content Director: Dan Beaumont
Executive Planning Director: Fabio Buresti
Strategic Planner: Mat Rawnsley
Content Director: Kristen Hardeman
Content Manager: Pia McMorran
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie
Producer: Pip Smart
Production Company: Revolver
Editorial & Colour: Jack Hutchings – The Butchery; Ben Eagleton – FUEL
Post: FIN
DoP: Russell Boyd
Original music: Guns ‘n’ Roses ‘Welcome to the Jungle’
Arrangement: Sonar Music/ Michael Lira
Producer: Karina
Sound Design: Simon Kane
Client: The Star
Iris Kleimann: General Manager Marketing
Tara Seymour: Communications Manager
Alex Curtis: Marketing Executive
63 Comments
That has to be some of the worst advertising I have seen in decades.
I enjoyed this a lot. Makes everything else this year look average.
GNR 4 LIFE \m/
Great choice of track, lotsa fun. Just doesn’t feel anywhere near as indulgent or lavish as I was hoping given the press release. A bit washed out perhaps, just like Mr Roger’s grading.
Saw this stoned off my tits last night and it blew my mind.
Brilliant stuff.
Best ad on TV in months.
I thoroughly enjoyed that. Well done all.
I really wanted to hate this…..but it was just too cool. Fantastic and refreshing approach…no more cheesy shots of people at card tables and standing around playing roulette..edgy and out of the box, I think that the client should be very happy and also congratulated for letting the agency come up with something that challenges the normal casino dross. Job very well done.
Is this a satire or a documentary?
But seriously, not even Micah’s and Steve’s magic, and the whole Kitsch treatment here can take the stink off of Star City . . . I mean The Star. Maybe if they got Bill Murray to do the lounge act, but still. The problem is that no lampoon could ever go quite far enough to distance itself from the confronting reality of the gold-plated palace.
The real, and we’re hoping inadvertent humour here lies in the fact that the Star Wars bar crowd that populates the tvc is all too similar to the jurassic freak show of rugby league meets Chinatown meets Packeresque gaudy bad taste you’ll see at the casino and the spate of new high-end eateries most nights, and their ‘facelift’ and rebrand looks an awful lot like the kind you’d get in Beverly Hills, complete with blown up lips and that patented frozen smile.
Money can’t buy class, and this style over substance white elephant on Darling Harbour is not the Monte Carlo Casino, or even Casino Royale. As Lenny Bruce mused about the nouveau riche, and Keith later put in a tune, “The pool’s in, but the patio ain’t dry”.
seriously?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1fkHQP_Pw
I don’t think it’s the agencies job to fix everything at the Star, Nick, just the advertising. This is a bloody good ad, so I say well done.
I really wanted to like this. And I still do.
whover wrote the first comment cannot have stayed with the ad. At first I thought it was stupid, but was in love by the end. Great spot.
Mind you, I’d never be caught dead in that dive.
This is the best ad produced out of Australia for years.
Read it.
Years.
Beyond all the carping an whining.
The hype and lies.
This is a straight out smash.
If you can’t see it, take your stupid haircut, your authentic Japanese sneakers and get on your fixie and just ride into another career choice.
Thanks Nick for your over-written review on The Star.
In other news, no one cares.
The ad is good. Well art directed. Has lots of little gems, twists and turns. Reminds me of the Fatboy Slim video for Weapon of Choice by Spike Jonze.
Not wild on the grade or the way the tune was reinterpreted. But that’s a personal opinion.
it’s a shame there’s such a disconnect between what’s promised here and what you find when you walk in
Who starts a sentence with ‘I really wanted to hate this’?
Idea aside,
I think Rogers has stripped it back and downplayed everything so much that it feels flat.
To me anyway, it feels laboured & the location (Star) not lively and exciting.
The idea is really fun!
The film is not.
The average punter who frequents, or might frequent this venue wont understand the underplayed satire. It might appeal to an award show groupie, but I doubt it will help The Stars bottom line.
So that what Sven Goran Erikssonn has been up to
Sven Goran Eriksson is a much better singer than football manager
Finally, something from The Monkeys (Micah Walker) that I like.
This stopped me in my tracks. Sat there gobsmacked watching this on free-to-air in Melbourne last night. It had me wondering right to the end – is it johnnie walker? is it a new oceans movie? what the hell is it? The piano disappearing at the end is a cracker too.
A beautfully shot piece of disruption that has our whole agency talking down here and none of us know any of the people involved. Well done to the monkeys and the production people – this would have been a hard one to sell in and a tough one to pull off but it’s bloody marvellous.
The best thing I have seen on TV for 4 years. About time for some more risky work like this to grace our screens. I’m sick of seeing stuff like this coming from off-shore.
Now give me some more cannon fodder for me to tear apart. Can’t touch this one.
It’s a 7.
Coulda been a 9.
Just ask Steve – nobody knows that a spot has fallen flat better than the director.
could have been a lot better with a different director
Unfortunatly it feels like a place you could take your dear old mum for a cup of tea on a Sunday arvo.
nice idea of the guy riding through the casino and the track, only that the casino itself looks so fucking boring. surely they could have gone way more OTT to sell the place, this place looks like an airport lounge not Sydneys home of entertainment/debauchery. just look at The Right Amount of Wrong campaign as refernce. lighten up its a casino for fucks sake…
so much for re-vamping and modernising the casino, this ad makes it look like it is stuck in the 70s with bad carpet, bad talent and boring night life. really disappointed.
This is f-ing great, wish i did it. Will clean up for sure.
Anyone who uses the ‘Right amount of wrong’ ad as a better reference either worked on it, or is a hack. This shits all over it.
I like people who try. Nice try Monkies.
This film is good. Very very good. Haven’t enjoyed anything this much for quite some time. Congratulations to everyone involved.
if you read the comment instead of being so defensive of your own work you’ll see the Right amount of Wrong’ was used in reference to the art direction and the fact that it actually looked like a entertaining place instead of this RSL club.2 And seriously stop kidding yourself this is nowhere near as good…
sorry but right amount of wrong and what happens in vegas are way more interesting expressions of the same idea that have actually become part of the vernacular. this aint bad but please dont get carried away with yourself.
Feels like the idea was written to be much more epic than the final film’s result is.
Aside from that, great work!
To see how many spots were brought…any one see it on air last night?
This spot makes it look like the shithole RSL club this casino really is.
Bad lighting, washed out walls, creepy old people, lifeless and gloomy. If they had someone vomiting in the background it would have been perfect. I thought the wobbly camera attached to the piano was inspired (not).
and for the people who think this will ‘pick up’… hilarious.
overall average. direction very flat
Ouch – flat! – but good go at something different, points for that. I think the direction is a bit off, it needs more dynamics.
@ 12:09
Your whole rant is your personal opinion. Can’t have it both ways.
is the Star a cruise liner?
Love it. Great fun. Well done everyone involved. Look forward to seeing it pushed even further for the next few ‘stories’.
Finally a casino ad that has some romance and swagger rather than shiny happy fake people having fake fun in a modern setting. Take a look at other casino advertising before you bag this. You’ll see it’s a load of rubbish.
I wanted to really like this. I love the thought. Just fell a bit flat for me in the execution for me. Saying that i think this is a fun ad, just not a killer ad. Well done to all involved.
I love this ad, beautifully simple.
I do agree however that it makes the casino itself looks a bit like an airport terminal. Maybe could have had a bit more Vegas style glamour happening in the background, but that’s just nit picking from me.
Errr, the US comic lounge singer Richard Cheese did this years ago, (YouTube it). Its not an original idea and the delivery isn’t funny. Reminds me of that Opera House Ship Song vs BBC Perfect Day debacle….
Well spotted 12:38 and you’ve left me torn about this spot.
I loved it initially, as many of the target market will.
But I then YouTubed Richard Cheese and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr7EBuz-2xI
Combine the song with the top comment on YouTube and you have this ad.
Not that the public will care, but you’d probably expect more form the team behind this.
The clip Gerp mentioned :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ojOWMwpNM&feature=related
Strange how they wouldn’t credit the original source of the music as the arrangement is exactly the same. It says Sonar music in the credits but maybe it was an oversight on the Monkey’s part?
How do you get away with completely lifting a performer’s work, granted that it’s a parody of the original but it is being used again as a parody, and not only refuse to credit him (Richard Cheese) but give the credit to the sound house (Sonar) who have recreated the arrangement, the tempo, the vocal style, literally everything, note for note?
The Monkeys are making this appropriation thing a habit, and it’s not funny.
Pretty upset is an understatement. Monkeys business indeed.
https://www.facebook.com/richardcheese
There Will Be Solicitors
i take it CD on this is a writer yeah?
it’s a lot closer to the Richard Cheese version than “Land down under” was to “kookaburra sits in the old Burmese”
What a waste of time/money – who are they trying to market to?
Sometimes less is more. Very forgettable.
Valiant blog posters who hide behind closed laptops with nothing better to do than slag people, please take note.
Your opinion publicly reflects the life you lead. Useless.
Campaign? Brilliant.
First the BBC.
Now Richard Cheese.
Where it all end?
Great Commercial. Music, lighting, direction. Superb. Loved the fact Bill Baker is actually singing the song better than Richard Cheese. Not over the top but the ad keeps you wanting to see it over and over.
Is the full version on youtube?
WANT!!!!
I’d really like someone to explain to me why this is good?
I too would really like it explained to me why this is good. If it were made for $300k, I’d say they did a pretty good job. It was dated before it had even reached the lab. Honestly, what is wrong with you all who loved this? “the best advertising in Australia for a year”?? I’m appalled.
Look I too have to admit I’m in the “I don’t get it!” camp. This ad makes absolutely no sense to me. I watch it and think, why that singer, why that song, why the hell would I want to go to Star City? It just makes me want to cringe…
This song was written by Richard Cheese and the star are not paying him for this track. Here’s the original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr7EBuz-2xI
A sign that advertising in Australia is stale and beginning to steal ideas. Disgusting.
As a planner for 15+ yrs….best ad I’ve seen since rabbits.