SEX SELLS FOR CALIFORNICATION
Marketforce Perth transformed a shopfront display as part of an ambient campaign promoting the highly anticipated second season of Network Ten’s controversial comedy/drama series Californication, launching this Sunday, October 5, following Rove.
Starring David Duchovny, Californication chronicles the life of Hank Moody, a novelist whose obsession with honesty and his self-destructive behaviour – drink, drugs and sex – are simultaneously destroying and enriching his career. Since its infamous debut episode, Californication has stirred a considerable amount of controversy due to its explicit nature and occasional nudity.
“We approached Marketforce to create something that was representative of the show’s tone,” said Network Ten Perth’s Marketing & Publicity Manager, Kylee Payne. “We wanted something that conveyed its sexy, sophisticated and provocative side, as well as its humour.”
Agency: Marketforce, Perth
Creative Director: Andrew Tinning
Creative team: Guy Hamilton Howlett and Rob James
Agency Producer: Daidre Davies
Account Team: Sharyn Beor
Kylee Payne (Network Ten Perth’s Marketing & Publicity Manager)
49 Comments
I watched for 30 minutes as almost everyone who walked past this ignored it which is a pity as it is quite a nice idea
That is the best use of a shop window to promote a second series of a Channel 10 imported drama that I have ever seen.
Well done to all concerned.
I like this, I really do but can’t help thinking ‘is this scam?’
Why did it only run in Perth for a national show and how much cut through did it get?
Looks great – well done!
Well Stephen. It’s obvious your university lecturer hasn’t informed you that all the commercial TV advertising (free to air) outside of the television medium is sourced from within each state. Marketforce would be the incumbent agency for 10 in WA and therefore advertises their products within that far away state.
The only problem here my son is you thinking that every good idea you see must be a scam because either:
a) you can’t think at this level or
b) you’ve never managed to get anything decent up.
To give you the benefit of the doubt we’ll say it’s the latter eh.
I love this idea! Top Gear ought to go and see Marketforce. Job done.
Come on guys, it’s described as “part of an ambient campaign” so no doubt the rest of Australia will be able to enjoy the idea as it’s rolled out. You are all too quick to lay into it before you have seen the whole campaign. I think until we have seen this in another couple of cities at least, it is too early to call it scam .
californication, awesome show too!
I am not going to critique the particular work in question. What I would like to do is comment on doing ads for TV shows and movies in general. I reckon it’s easier and, therefore, deserves less industry kudos than it often gets. Californication is a cool show. Doing cool ads for it is not that hard. Same with Scream, Godzilla, Austin Powers, Spiderman, Superman, The Invisible Man, The Truman Show etc. etc.
Great advertising minds should, in my view, be seeking out bigger challenges.
Good show.
I prefer David doing humans rather than aliens.
Good idea, but I also think it could be so extended. Like bigger shop fronts on a national scale and unobvious retail outlets; like putting the mannequins amongst grocery, hardware, electrical and other places.
I realize that’s about budget, but it’s also about ingenuity. How many retail and other spaces nationally are currently being refurbished or about to reopen and how much would it cost to rent a whole load of unused or out-of-date mannequins and just rent the unused spaces simultaneously for a few days?
Good ideas deserve to be stretched.
Sal,
It looks scammy as shit. Please don’t berate individuals for questioning the cut through or reality of a redressing of a piss ant shop window in the suburbs.
The idea aint that great either.
Bless.
Woah Woah Woah Sal, I said I like the idea, it just looks a little ‘scammy’. Like most people in advertising, I didn’t go to university – I had rich parents who knew people.
You obviously know a lot about this campaign, can you please tell me how it is tracking?
Is there a media schedule for outside of Perth? I think it’s a good idea as well.
Nice idea to put it up on Saturday. But I can’t help thinking this will get ripped to shreds on the blog when the real creatives get back into the office on Monday morning
Meh, doesn’t do much for me, and I’m a huge fan of the show.
Should have done something with a sex shop.
To all the junior burgers out there, this isn’t a bad way too cut your teeth. (I’d be a bit concerned if this stuff was being done by senior teams).
On the East Coast our clients tend to do Melbourne and Sydney with a 50/50 chance you’ll do something for Brisbane.Perth has always had it’s own marketing departments and it’s own Perth based agencies.
100% off genitals.
Staring at this idea as a photo on a website may work, but in the real world there was just zero cut-through! I walked straight past it yesterday lunchtime… I remember noticing the Channel 10 sticker (only because I work in the industry) and thinking to myself, ‘that’s a strange spot to stick a sticker’.
I reckon the advent of blogs and other social media are fucking our industry. It is now so easy to ‘PR’ work, that the moment someone farts in a creative department, it’s posted somewhere as being an earth-shattering development. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of work is totally disposable and forgettable. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means that it isn’t genuinely worthy of saying, “Hey, industry, check this out.”
There are probably two or three pieces a year (maybe) that are genuinely great, that will be remembered and talked about in years to come. Let me also say that if a piece of work is genuinely great (and was honestly visible to the general public), it will end up being talked about on its own. It won’t need a creative or CD to pump it up.
This industry needs more strong, silent types.
It’s exactly the sort of ‘work’ the industry should berate and stamp out, not award. If it wins anything I’ll travel to Perth and firebomb the agency.
What part of the industry do you work in Jake? The mail room? Zero cut through ? I saw it on the way back from having a beer at the Brisbane, one of Perth’s busiest pubs. The ambient is strategically placed just down the road from it so well done to whoever at the agency secured such a great location. There was a bunch of punters standing in front of the piece having their pictures taken next to it on their phones. I guess they must have been as impressed by the logo as you were.
What’s going on, Lynchy?
There’s a disturbing trend to a real lack of meaty stories on the CB blog of late.
A shop window in Perth? Really??? What’s become of the feisty blog of old?
Hasn’t somebody pompous died lately in a park? Hasn’t there been a mass sacking in one of the formerly dominant multinationals? Isn’t there an important national campaign, such as the new VB work by adland’s new darlings – whose name must be spoken only in hushed and revered tones – to admire/tear to shreds?
I fear the blog has been dumbed-down to appeal to the 19-24 year-old demographic, leaving the mature or experienced observer hungry for the stimulating intellectual jousting and wittily conceived debate and vitriol that made this website such a joy in its formative years.
I’m not quite ready for the Australian version of The Spectator, which I see has just been released, but really, the blog has become utterly mundane of late.
I know for a fact this was a legitimate brief. Well done to the team who did it, they’ll go on to great things. I think it’s a sad day when something is called a scam just because there’s a good idea in it. Just because you may not be able to come up with a decent ad that the client has requested, doesn’t mean that others can’t. Be generous, people.
Some of the replies here are more clever than the actual display.
Thanks for playing though.
See, told you.
1:52. Go back to your catalogue copy you scam merchant poof.
I bet you are a Marketforce stooge.
You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it.
Adwanker.
Time to take out the pony tail you over-the-hill hack.
Digital is for DM rejects.
Come on pussy. What you got?
(I’m doing my best, mate.)
More clever, 3:24???
Exactly the sort of dumb, illiterate, useless comment I was talking about in my tirade of 1:52.
For God’s sake children, try harder.
As a follow-up, the agency should start draping bras all over Perth with little”Californication” tags on them. People could pick them up and take them home as souvenirs. A bit like this: http://www.promovideochannel.com/2008/06/californication-bra-invasion.html
I said some time ago that Tinning’s talents were wasted in Perth. I now take it back. This is another very nice idea that seems to be consistently coming out of his agency. Imagine what they could do with work for multinationals. From here in NZ it seams Perth are showing Sydney up to be a pack of hacks of late. I wonder how long it will be until the Sydney clients start catching on and moving their business to Perth.
Far out – why would one be so negative. The guy who said ‘should have done something with a sex shop.’ Don’t you think they guys might have thought of this?
I think the idea is nicely ‘downplayed,’ and void of anything too gross. It’s channel ten.
Having said that, I agree with the people who question the placement. Why not do it nationally for a day or two and move to the next level of the campaign…[?] If it was in the windows of DJs in Melbourne, Sydney etc as well as Perth, could have been lovely and noticeable.
Nice one.
Better than that silly car ramp 🙂
1:52 you are spot on.
Come one Lynchy.
This is barely journalism, more like favourtism.
There hasn’t been a decent TV commercial posted in 3 months (mind you maybe there aren’t any). So now we’re reduced to scam and ambient as a diet, because direct is too grubby and digital too advanced.
Some sort of a rejig is due, because I feel the blog is getting a bit sub prime….
Andy, you are a complete idiot.
What a wonderful world of self-delusion you have constructed for yourself.
How on Earth you arrived at your totally inaccurate profile of me is something that would keep a battalion of shrinks employed for decades.
1:52.
You obviously work for Marketforce, 4.47.
“redressing of a piss ant shop window in the suburbs”.
Come on, that’s funny, wouldn’t you agree?
Oh, well.
Disagree 6:51 Tinning’s talents aren’t being wasted in Perth. He’s producing good work and plenty of it but…..it’s Perth. So save us the ‘Perth is showing up Sydney as a pack of hacks’ poo. Please save your silly comments until a Kiwi creative has come to Sydney and stayed longer than 5 minutes before running back to NZ because ‘it was all too hard’.
8.24, have you watched the show? I don’t think Ten is concerned about being too gross! The opening scene of the very first show featured a nun, a church and sex if I recall correctly. Then he gets punched in the face by a supposed 16 year old as she’s riding him with her tits out!!
Jake: ‘….only noticed the sticker because you work in the industry’. You’re an intellectual snob and if you continue to believe you’re so much smarter than the general public you’ll probably produce pretty dumb work.
Looks like a clever use of a shop window format.
Not amazing but better than the majority of dross out there.
Andrew
Congrats to the guys for actually producing some work.
The problem with this country is that we spend so much time looking up our own arses trying to find a lion we become hyper critical and produce nothing.
Some things are worthy of deep and considered debate. Other pieces of work, like this, are little more than being worthy of being seen and noted. Just because there is a comments facility doesn’t mean we have to use it.
Naked mannequins.Ooh, err. Not really very naughty, is it.
I don’t get the -‘it’s Perth’ attitude you eastern staters seem to have. Have you been there lately? the place is booming. I counted almost 20 cranes working in the cbd alone last time I was having a coffee down town. With more millionaires per capita and the states mining resources propping up the rest of the countries economy I’d say the place is far from hicksville. And when the Libs open up the uranium mines, there’s another few decades of countless billions of dollars pouring into the local economy. Another ten years and you’ll be eating humble harry’s pie.
Oh and as for working in the industry here , the briefs are just as challenging and the clients are just as difficult.I would say that given the lack of opportunity that you guys seem to swim in over there, the local creative community tends to do ok.
Hey, when Perth finally gets good – we’re all coming to live there and suck it dry. Until then – enjoy the hole (evil laugh)
Agree totally, 10:33, Go-ahead Perth makes Gundagai look like a country town – and there they are doing major re-construction on the old bridge across the Murimbidgee River – with two cranes (two…I counted ’em) and lots of heavy-looking industrial shit!
10:33AM
Pick up a shovel and go fuck yourself with it.
Actually pretty sure Port Lincoln still has more millionaires (from tuna fishing) per capita.
Let’s hear it for Port Lincoln’s Tony Santic, who not only made millions from tuna and the winnings of Makybe Diva, but more importantly perhaps used to – and possibly still does – sport one of the finest remaining 80’s-style mullets in captivity.
The thing is Manly thrashed Storm.
1:52, 9:38, I totally agree. This blog is now a pile of stinking do. These Juniors from Perth can handle the scrutiny but Droga and Nobby can’t? Pathetic, just pathetic.
Venting is fun but it’s more fun when you vent to someone who cares.
Long weekend charlie hangovers anyone?
Andy,
Digital is different to mainstream because we have to entice people into watching our ads instead of bashing them over the head repeatedly. Something I’d imagine half the people on this blog wouldn’t be very good at. Stick to TV, Integrated’s dead.
(doing my best too)
1.31 I’ll pick up a shovel but I won’t shove up my arse, I’ll place it gently in your hands and point you toward the mines so you can get a gig that pays at least a hundred k more than the forty you’re on at the shitty retail agency you’re stuck in.
Where’s Perth?