Australians encouraged to pork more often in latest campaign via Noble Brands Worldwide
CB Exclusive – Australian Pork Limited has created a stir with the latest ad in its long-running, cheeky brand campaign, created by APL’s long-serving agency partners Noble Brands Worldwide, but complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau have already been successfully defended.
Says Peter Haydon, general manager of marketing, APL: “We half expect to hear from a few wowsers every time we release a new brand ad. This one was no exception. But they were very quick off the mark this time. This new ad had an outstanding ‘likability’ score in pre-testing, so thankfully the complaints have been dismissed and we get on with helping Aussie pig farmers selling even more pork.”
The new ad is set inside the waiting room at a suburban doctor’s surgery where the focus is on an elderly man waiting patiently as his wife has her scheduled check-up. When his wife reappears, she paraphrases her doctor’s health advice – quite loudly, as he’s a little hard of hearing – and tells him, “The doctor says we should Pork more often.” Later, we hear a voice-over explain what the doctor’s actual advice must have been in that Pork fillets are half the fat of beef fillets and a valuable source of iron.
Says Haydon: “In recent times, the focus of Pork’s marketing and communication efforts has been on promoting the health and versatility of Pork which has been working extremely well for the brand. This new ad gets us back into some core brand work which has been much loved by consumers throughout the nine years it’s been running.”
The controversy around the new ad has been brought to mainstream attention via Ray Hadley on 2GB and News Limited articles, who have used it as an example of how political correctness could be eating into the creative freedom of the advertising industry.
Says Monty Noble, ECD, Noble Brands: “Both News Limited and 2GB had been questioning the recent updates to the Ad Standards Code and defending the creative freedom of our industry – which is wonderful. Ray brought up this latest Pork ad as an example of an ad that may be banned if the code continues to expand down the path it’s currently taking. While I don’t really see that happening (as the Pork campaign is just a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun and wouldn’t be impacted by the new by-laws anyway) it is a shame to think that we are constantly adding to the restrictions around Australian ads – given how easy-going we are as a nation. Perhaps we, as an industry, should be pushing back a bit harder ourselves rather than wait for media outlets to do it for us. Otherwise it’ll become harder to attract the best young talent to the industry and harder still to find clients willing to push boundaries.”
The 30-second ad was directed by Luke Shanahan (who’s first feature film, “Rabbit”, is due for release this month) and produced by Kim Kirby of Walter Ink with post-production by The Editors and sound by Audiobrien.
Client: Australian Pork Limited
General Manager of Marketing: Peter Haydon
Senior Brand Manager: Eunbi Lee
Marketing and Communication Manager: Mitch Edwards
Assistant Brand Manager: Melissa Johnson
Agency: Noble Brands Worldwide
Managing Director: Chris Pinnegar
Creative Team: Monty Noble, Greg Alder, Colin Sevitt
Production Manager: Andrew Baber
Production Company: Walter Ink
Director: Luke Shanahan (A Longshot Films)
Producer: Kim Kirby
DOP: Daniel Ardilley
Post Production: The Editors
Editor: Stuart Morley
Sound: Brad Grisaffe at Audiobrien
Media: Slingshot
16 Comments
Bietter than most dross that fills our screens.
Saw this the other night. And chuckled.
The only ‘stir’ this limp pun is causing is in the press releases of the agency involved.
A fairly predictable gag
More schoolboy humour from the sausage factory.
I laughed. And I don’t often do that with commercials these days.
I really can’t see why this would offend anybody. If you are offered by something like this you may as well not get out of bed in the morning. Have we become so sensitive we can’t even enjoy a bit of lighthearted humor. It’s a nice spot well executed, well done Monty and team!
It’s such an ownable gag. No wonder they can’t walk away from it. The challenge is finding new ways to tell it. Which I think they’ve done extremely well. Remember Little Britain? Most of those skits led to the same gag every time. ‘I want that one’ and ‘only gay in the village’ for example. So why not in advertising? Anyway it seems their research is proof of the pudding so it doesn’t really matter what any of us think!
The only people this would offend are Muslims and Jews.
Love it. Memorable, fun, irreverent, worth a mention over a VBQ. Ehat’s Not to like? The Two Ronnies humour, which always made me chuckle.
More schoolboy humour from the sausage factory.
@Bored female creative
I reckon you’re not a creative. I reckon you’re a bitter suit or client hijacking the current (very overdue and necessary) industry-wide conversation to push your own agenda.
And by saying you’re a female creative, you’re suggesting a female creative wouldn’t produce a ‘sex/pork’ pun based ad. Which is insulting, because a female creative should (like a male creative should) do whatever is going to work best for the client.
This campaign has worked its socks off.
If you really are a creative, let’s hear what you would have done.
If you’re not, feel free not to reply, or to say I’m being sexist (which I’m not) and avoid giving it a crack.
Since I am a creative, I’ll have a go off the top of my head:
If the ‘pork/sex’ pun is off the table, I’d do two Japanese Kobe beef masseurs talking to each other about how amazing it would be if you could have a meat that was as tasty as Kobe beef, better for you, and much cheaper.
They’d finish with “Pig might fly”.
Cut to line “Get some pork on your fork”, product shot and logo.
Ok, you’re up.
Such an obvious, immature solution, said everyone who’s ever worked on this product. Punthetic and belongs on the Paul Hogan show. It’s 2018 people…
This is great! An old rooting joke. What’s not to love aye? About time we brought this shit back. Can’t wait to show Austen Tayshus
the work they deserve.
And Aussie Pork clearly deserves a predictable 30″ Ad with the same joke from 20 years ago, regurgitated year after year.
The brand equivalent of Hey Hey it’s Saturday.
Worked it’s socks off? I highly doubt it, despite whatever post rationalisation you want to use. Pork is neither more available nor more desirable than it was back when pork on your fork was introduced.
Time for some seriously fresh thinking.
Not one mention of what truly guaranteed the success of this ad, ensuring ye olde crass pun would cause minimal offence and be tolerated by a majority. By underplaying his reaction to subtle perfection, the actor playing the husband deserves all credit. I googled the porky punchline hoping to find his name so I can send him my congratulations and respect. Somebody? Anybody? Not a single cast credit in all that’s been written about this. Oh sorry- “talent’s” expendable. Sigh…..