Specsavers Cowboys caught in a squinting standoff in new ‘Should’ve’ campaign via AJF
Squinting cowboys dramatise the need for polarised lenses in the latest ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ campaign created by AJF.
Inspired by wild west movies, the campaign calls attention to the need for, and benefit of, polarised lenses as two cowboys in a shootout struggle with glare from the sun.
To avoid a near tragic end, the cowboys ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ for free polarised lenses to reduce glare, provide full UV protection and see things, like each other, more clearly.
Says Jane Hoban, director of marketing and contact lenses, Specsavers: “The ad was created to demonstrate the benefits of polarised lenses, which can reduce horizontal glare by 99.9% while providing full UV protection, and promote our free polarised lenses in your second pair offer.
“With Australia and New Zealand having some of the highest levels of UV and sun glare in the world, it’s important that people protect their eyes and polarised lenses are the best way to do that.
“We felt the best way to cut through with the audience was to dramatise the benefits of polarised lenses using our trademark ‘Should’ve ‘humour in the fun setting of the wild west where glare is front and centre.
“The campaign concept was developed by AJF when they first pitched to Specsavers so it’s great to see it brought to life as part of our latest ‘Should’ve’ campaign.”
Says Joshua Stephens, chief creative officer, AJF: “It’s a privilege for us to be working with the Specsavers team on executing the famous ‘Should’ve’ construct in new and different ways.
“We pay huge respect to the longevity of the brand idea, and being able to introduce fresh ideas like squinting cowboys for anti-glare lenses adds a benefit based layer to the campaign we’re very proud of. It’s also a whole lot of fun!”
Launching in Australia on 26 January 2022, the campaign is running across Australia and New Zealand on TV, press, radio, digital display, social, in-store, out-of-home, in-store POS and online video.
Client: Specsavers
Director of Marketing and Contact Lenses ANZ: Jane Hoban
Chief Creative Officer: Joshua Stephens
Strategy Director: Jill Cummins
Senior Account Director: Sarah Dalli
Director: Paul Middleditch
Media: Initiative
32 Comments
Maybe the cowboy is back on his game.
Nice work.
If the idea is to dramatize the need for polarised lenses, shouldn’t the cowboys have been wearing regular glasses that needed polarising?
Apart from that, well-written, excellent performances, beautifully produced.
Nice work, made me smile. Can’t be said about many ads on TV these days.
love this spot. laughed out loud.
I loled.
Wasn’t huge on that library spot, but this is a good ‘un.
Loved the library spot too, although didn’t believe the lanyard playing.
This is a great continuation, obviously with more budget for brand and is a simpler get conceptually. Bring back weird simplicity, it works.
This is good stuff.
Awesome.
Brilliant. Lol’d
Nice one Pete and Paul x
Great work, nice combo of product and brand too. A good ad will dramatize and or demonstrate the benefit. This does both. Chops.
So good! Well done guys.
Look it’s no Medownick Eye Clinic ad but it’s still pretty good.
Genre works in ads. The cinematic language is already known with obvious rules. Difficult to fuck up. And the dialogue strengthens the concept here.
Mostly i love genre in ads but it’s also the easiest path. This totally works but it’s also super obvious and a tiny bit cheese in style. Concept is strong with the squint. Wondering if the performances could have been a touch more real and the rug pull moment would have been more rewarding and funny? Overall great work.
The Dare callum murray and the hipster spots, and the catch.com.au stuff, and this is kinda fun…AJF kinda does better TV than most melbourne agencies these days. what’s happened out there??
Really like this. Well crafted film making. Thank god it’s still around.
Just out of interest were was it filmed? given Covid.
Is it that one near wilberforce? Shot there before, good spot
Genre is in the details, and not many of them are right here.
ha ha. so true!…. Cowboys were around in the late 1800s and yet polarised lenses weren’t even invented until 1936!!! Ha! You’d think they would have looked that up! The egg is really on their face now eh?
Get a life. Relax its fun.
Hey – this is an Ad. It needs to be entertaining first. It’s farking good. Nobody gives a shit about the detail of cowboys. FACT. Grow up.
Come on yeh nah! It’s a good ad for Australia and i don’t see many. It would have been fun to make. It’s entertaining. It’s not reality. Nobody cares about when polarised lenses were invented. There’s enough details in this genre for it to work and for people to get it. Maybe more budget would have allowed for more details which might happen if we genuinely celebrate when clients try. If people continually bitch about every tiny little imperfection on decent ads here then clients will clam up. Save your criticism for shit ads, there’s lots of them. This ain’t perfect but it definitely isn’t shit.
Enjoyed this and the last library ad. Congrats to specsavers and ajf for giving good old entertainment a crack again. Keep it up.
Give me a better insight for the everyday Jo to get, that’s better than. ‘When people can’t see they squint’
Thought starter – who else squints??…cowboys.
We pitched for this and lost. Its great to see Specsavers locally making really good ads with AJF (the first lot were good too). Well done everyone involved (from concept to execution it’s all really good). This is fantastic to see for our industry.
If they can see each other squinting can they not also makeout their face?
awesome audio!
Well done Paul and Pete … and AJF.
Unless it was in fact the CCO and CD, the only people NOT to get a mention are the creatives who actually came up with the idea – THREE planners and THREE suits get credited though 🙄
OK I’ll say it, the accents suck.
Pats on the head, treats and shout outs are for dogs my friend. The real rewards come from within.
This is just great work all round..
These spec saver adds are absolutely brilliant. Above all, they are funny! Great humour,which is a missing ingredient in this silly woke world that takes everything so seriously. One stupid comment I read said they were mocking the visually impaired! I mean, how idiotic is that. But then this is the generation of the 21st century isn’t it. Carry on Spec Savers with your very clever and very funny adds. That’s what attracts customers!