Accidental pirates: the extended version

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IPAF 3.jpgUPDATED SEPT 29 with the extended version which promises to be much more interesting.

August 30 – The Furnace Sydney today launches the first part of their campaign for IPAF (Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation), following their appointment to the account in March this year.  IPAF represents the Australian Film and TV industry in their promotion and education of screen content and copyright, and are responsible for the anti-piracy ads that run on the front of DVDs, as well as on TV and in Cinema.

The agency has created a campaign focussing on changing consumers’attitudes towards piracy by resetting the relationship the industry haswith them.

This first part of the campaign is aimed at a group identified byresearch as ‘Blind Actives’.  These are the 34% of Australians whodon’t think they’re pirates and morally don’t agree with it, but whenyou really check, you find out that they’re active pirates.  Andbecause of this, they don’t understand that they’re actually part ofthe problem. 

When Blind Actives are told that they are in fact pirates, they feelreally confronted.  Not wanting to put the target offside, the agencycoined the term ‘Accidental Pirate’.  It gives these people a get outclause for their actions to date, but still leverages the negativepower of the term ‘pirate’.

To diffuse the preaching further, the agency created a communicationthat delivered the serious message almost surreptitiously.  Thecampaign uses humour by using likeable caricatures of everydayAustralians to disarm the automatic barriers to the message, beforehitting them with the actual message which challenged them to becomemore informed in the future.

“Piracy has no boarders. It’s not specific to a demographic, race orcreed. Everyone is capable of doing it, or knows someone who has.  Thecharacters in our TV campaign – all played by the one and only actorDan Wyllie – are meant to be a broad representation of modern dayAustralia.  It was important to feel like you knew the individuals orthat you’ve bumped into them at the supermarket, on the bus or down thebeach,” said Paul Fenton, national creative director, The Furnace.

“The Furnace illustrated a clear understanding of the complexity of thewhole piracy issue and all the nuances we face.  We were reallyimpressed with their ability to approach the problem as a whole,delivering innovative answers covering all channels that could reallyimpact on the problem,” said Gail Grant, CEO of IPAF.

“Previous anti-piracy campaigns have mainly told consumers off.  But ifyou’re basically appealing to people’s better nature to do the rightthing, then wagging fingers at them really doesn’t get you too far,”said Tony Singleton, managing director of The Furnace.  “We needed totake a completely different approach, stop talking down to people andstart engaging them in a conversation on their level.”

TITLE: ‘Honestly Unawares’

CLIENT: Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF)

AGENCY: The Furnace Sydney

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Paul Fenton

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT: Siobhan Petri/Angie Laxton

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Flying Fish

DIRECTOR: Adam Blaiklock

PRODUCER Paul S Friedmann 

DOP: Damien Wyvill

Screen shot 2010-08-30 at 8.21.11 AM.pngThe Australian’s media editor Geoff Elliott talks to Paul Fenton, national CD of The Furnace, Sydney and director Adam Blaiklock fromproduction company Flying Fish, the creators of a new ad campaign thatasks you to watch what you watch.