adam&eveDDB revives Aussie ad icons Dorothy and Roger for Mars Schmackos relaunch
Advertising legends Dorothy and Roger are returning to Australia’s television screens after a hiatus of eight years in a new campaign for Mars Petcare brand Schmackos, created by adam&eveDDB, London.
The ads use the iconic ‘Dogs Go Wacko For Schmackos’ jingle, which helped make the brand Australia’s number one dog treat.
For this new campaign, adam&eveDDB has gone back to Schmackos’ advertising roots with CGI versions of the original Claymation figures of Dorothy and her beloved pooch Roger, a Jack Russell. To maximise nostalgia adam&eveDDB even tracked down Deidre Rubenstein, the actress who originally voiced Dorothy.
In the new ads, we see how wacko Roger will go for his Schmackos, with a series of mad, escalating responses to Dorothy’s requests for him to jump and roll over. The spots serve to highlight the love Dorothy has for Roger – and Roger has for Schmackos.
The animation is by Not To Scale, the studio behind I Lost My Body, which was nominated for a best animated feature film Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. The team at Not To Scale hand sketched the animation first and then designed the CGI to pay homage to the iconic Claymation style of the original campaign.
Along with a mass TV blitz, Schmackos marketing activity is planned for digital, social, radio and retail media as part of an extensive campaign running through 2020 and beyond.
Says Meagan Hill, portfolio marketing director at Mars Pet Nutrition Australia: “I am beyond excited to bring this well-loved brand and it’s heroes back to the screen and back to Australians. Here’s hoping Aussie dogs will be going wacko for Schmackos for years to come.”
Client: Mars Petcare
Brand: Schmackos
Project/Campaign Name: Dogs Go Wacko For Schmackos
Client: Meagan Hill, Portfolio Marketing Director, Mars Pet Nutrition Australia
Agency: adam&eveDDB
Chief Creative Officer: Richard Brim
Creative Directors: Frank Ginger, Shay Reading
Copywriter: Shay Reading, Raminder Samra
Art Director: Frank Ginger, Caio Turbiani
Executive Content Director: Simon Adamson
Head of Content: Jessica Taylor
Social Creative: Rebecca Wilson
Project Manager: Alice Southam
Agency Producers: Rebecca Holt, Jess Middleton, Lucinda Ker
Planning Partner: Tom Sussman
Senior Planner: Jack Spicer
Group Managing Director: Fiona McArthur
Managing Partner: Charlotte Cook
Business Director: Loella Collier
Account Director: Cosmo Haskard
Account Manager: Jack Cowie
Account Executive: Hugo Evans
Designer/Typographer: Roberto Celentano
Gutenberg Producer: Charlotte O’Reilly
Gutenberg Editor: Jason Fox
Media Agency: Mediacom Australia
Media Planner/s: Nicholas Topham
Production Company: Not To Scale
Executive Producer: Dan O’Rourke
Producer: Marcela Ferri
Director: Bertrand Bey & Pierre Ducos
Editing Company: NTS
VFX Supervisor: Nicolas Lesaffre
CG Artists: Erin Lo, Toby Leung, Damien Ferrie, Frank Yu
Animation Studio Support: Nikopicto
EP: Lily Leung
Audio Post Production: 750
Sound Engineer: Sam Robson
Soundtrack Name and Composer: ‘Perfect Feeling’ Cartlege, Jewson & Newton
Soundtrack Library: Cavendish Music
13 Comments
Why give Australian work to an overseas agency? Granted they are an amazing agency but still it’s sad to see this happen.
Hmmm… Hearing you. The concept first was developed and produced here in OZ mid 90’s. Pity the original creators don’t get a mention so here goes, congrats Jamie (last name eludes me… Cunningham?) and Matt Baldwin – her’s your credit for creating an iconic campaign.
Thank you @But Why. The other creative was Jamie Buckingham. Also Jon Platt (CD) & Nick Donkin (animator) deserve a lot of credit too
Ahh apologies! The art director on Schmackos was the incredibly talented Barry Baker, not Jamie Buckingham (though also incredibly talented). Booking in for my Alzheimers test tomorrow But Why…
the genius of this would have been if they had shot this for real in stop motion like the originals
I’m not normally one to jump on the jingoistic bandwagon. I think it’s healthy to compete with shops all over the world.
But I do not understand how you can justify revising an old domestic campaign via a London agency.
To be honest, you don’t even need a creative agency for this work, just go straight to the animation studio and they’d come up with something similar, if not better.
Saddened it wasn’t re-done in claymation. Those ads kicked ass with craft and became iconic. Would have been great to see it again.
Perhaps DDB are going the long way around to try and get a shot at the Mars Petcare portfolio in Australia? Aussie planner worked on this, and DDB has historically held some stuff from Mars. Perhaps Clem’s Melbourne should be watching their back…
Dog owner and lover and these are bland. No love. No interest.
Being a fur parent means something. Show me that, not poor craft and no emotional connection.
Fail.
Smackos has always been with DDB. Clems Melb is fine thanks
@tactical move – Fun fact:DDB Aus actually had the Schmackos account for a few years up until probably a year ago.
Why use OS agency and animation here.
Buck, Mighty Nice, Alt or Fin could have done this beautifully.
Disappointing in tough times to see this from a brand. I certainly wont be buying it anymore.
I used to work on Schmackos when I was at Grey, well after the original campaign launched.
I wrote scripts but there was never any budget and to be honest, the product tended to sell itself.
Dogs really did go wacko for this stuff!
The first ones in the 90s were done by claymation animator, Nick Donkin, from Flying Gherkin.
Check them out here: https://flyinggherkin.com/Schmackos
I think a lot of the magic came from the little touches and twisted humour that Nick added.
I loved the way Dorothy’s fat wobbled on her arms! She was also way meaner.
His style was very rough and grungy but that was what made it so awesome.
This new one feels lacking, but I feel they’ve been lacking for some time.
Nick also did the cool YoGo ones from that time, too. I still remember that line, “I’ll get back to you, Barry.”
I tend to agree with @Strange Call about not needing an agency. You need a wacko animator.