Fisherman’s Friend becomes everyone’s best friend for freshness in a new TV spot via MJW
Stuart Alexander and MJW, on behalf of Lofthouse of Fleetwood Ltd., have launched a new campaign for the Fisherman’s Friend Brand introducing a Dolphin called Colin, who hangs out with his mates, as everyone’s best friend for freshness.
Says Scott Davis, strategy director at MJW: “The campaign aims to reposition the Fisherman’s Friend brand head on into the fresh mint space, and introduce Fisherman’s Friend to a lolly-mint loving, younger audience.”
Says Marrianne Little, MJW creative director: “Dolphins are known for being a great friend of humans, so in the first of a series of TVCs, ‘First Date’, we see Colin in the back seat helping out his mate about to pick up a lady friend for a date. Colin hands him a Fisherman’s Friend, the freshest of mints.”
The campaign will launch on May 19 and includes TV, digital, shopper activity with outdoor rolling out in future bursts
Says Paddy Bryans, head of marketing, confectionery and snacks at Stuart Alexander: “Fisherman’s Friend is a long standing brand in Australia that has a lot of goodwill as a menthol based medicated lozenge. This aim of this new campaign is to shift Fisherman’s Friend into the growing mint market and attract mint users to the fresh and cooling taste of our sugarfree Fresh Mint flavour. To be successful in this repositioning we need the communication to be remarkable – Colin the Dolphin is a quirky approach designed to achieve this perfectly.”
Client: Stuart Alexander
Head of Marketing: Paddy Bryans
Senior Brand Manager: Lisa Pushkin
Assistant Brand Manager: Lisa White
Agency: MJW
Creative Team: Trent Christie & Matt Smith
Creative Director: Marrianne Little
General Manager: Ricardo Larriera
Strategy Director: Scott Davis
Account Director: Lucy Cunningham
Production Company: Jungleboys/Metropolis Films
Director: Al Morrow
23 Comments
Yum, I love blowhole dew.
Ha ha, love it!
Mung, I love it!
The toxic blowhole fart looks like something out of the sixties Batman TV series that makes everyone in the room collapse and fall asleep. Much like this ad. Which is about as far from appealingly minty that you can get without falling down a sewer. Miserable fail.
Remember the heyday of Cliff Freeman in the 90s? I remember the heyday of Cliff Freeman in the 90s.
It’s just not funny, this brand has a heritage of good work which this doesn’t live up to.
No ideas were harmed in the making if this ad.
GOD ITS SO AWKWARDLY BAD
“this brand has a heritage of good work…”
Enlighten the readers…
poking fun at this horror would be like shooting dolphins in a barrel. dated. horrid. save the dolphin. save fisherman’s friend.
What a clumsy, self-conscious piece of amateurish drivel. Marrianne, you of all people can’t seriously PR this without fingers crossed behind your back. The dolphin thing had a scintilla of possibility, I get that, but after that it all went to hell in a hand-basket. This should have been mercy-killed at script stage. And that’s ignoring the issues to do with the heritage of strong, simple work that the brand is famous for.
IT MAKES NO SENSE!!!!!!! LOUD NOISES!!!!!!!!
You know, it’s a weird thing when a brand has a go. When they put a stake in the ground and say I want to do something different. I want to break free of the cliche’d past. ‘I’ like this ad. And I’ll tell you why.
Historically (and romantically speaking), a fisherman’s friend is a dolphin. And for that reason this ad gets big brand brownie points for me. (I don’t confuse it with other mint ads.)
is it impactfull? Yes. (It’s surreal). Is it relevant to the product and audience? Yes. Is it motivating? Well I think so. I’d much rather give my coin to a brand that up until now has had no relevance at all to a city dweller. (I couldn’t give a crap about fisherman. But I do like dolphins.)
Don’t be the least surprised if this ad works at the cash register.
And I like the ‘text me if she has a pool’. What’s not to like? Seriously guys. Lighten up! And acknowledge the fact that this ad is a shit tonne better than the drivel we’re bombarded with night after night. (I do take offence to people lumping it in the shit basket.)
Thanks for taking me out of the morose drama that is reality TV. Tomorrow, when I have a choice of mints to buy, I’m going to buy the shit these guys are peddling. It will make it into my brand awareness register (which up until now has been invisible). And that’s all it comes down to in the end. Brand salience (brands that appear in your recognition radar). What are the other options in this category?
Hats off MJW. I think this is really fresh for the category. (Blow hole freshness and all.)
Creative genius – but definately not for the comprehension of morons. In the world of tv ads this one will stimulate and amuse the the brain of any viewer demographic who has an iq larger than that of a mouse.
I tend to agree with the Andrews on this. Out of the Monkeys or Clems Melbourne this would be applauded. It is trying, hard,. But isn’t that the idea of our job? Try hard to sell stuff?
The only thing i’d try to do different is maybe make his responses obvious enough to both pay off the joke and remove the need for subtitles. But who knows maybe they did try that.
Nice job.
Sorry to say it Andrew Ostrom, but your analysis of this is wrong. Yes, dolphin was a promising starting point, a good planning insight, but after that…
At least Andrew has the guts to put his name to his posts old CD guy. For mine it’s a bit of fun.
If you work for MJW are a porpoise or your name is Andrew this is a winner.. Otherwise fail!
The dolphin = a fisherman’s friend is a strong, campaignable idea that rather than being borrowed interest, is born out of the brand and what it delivers to its consumer.
Which the last time I checked was light blue collar blokes, aged 25 – 40.
The only ‘advertising history’ I can recall from this brand, is work that’s just as quirky (girls in waders???) but less relevant than this.
So what’s all the squeaking about?
Knowing Marrianne’s talent, I’ve a feeling this is the first cab off the rank of a good strong campaign idea. I’m interested to see where this brand thought goes….
Eeeeeeeeee eeeeee eeeee eeeee shite
Before you go saying ‘this is wrong’, lets see what the cash registers say. They’re connected to an audience rather than nostalgia of the days of ponytails and Porsches.
Amazing how the only people signing the praises of this dross are the agency’s employees using fake names, their mates and relatives. This unfunny pile stinks worse than Fisherman’s jocks….and @Not old CD guy said how the fuck does preference for a superior campaign equate to nostalgia, pony tails and Porsches. By the way that stupid statement is so fucking cliche what are you 12?
I am horrified by the ad!
Animal Activists such as myself will be outraged! WATCH THE COVE!!!
Dolphins are NOT entertainment! Dolphins CANNOT survive out of water! Your ad mocks everything we are trying to acheive.
You are basically saying that exploiting dolphins for entertainment is perfectly fine. Do you also feel that the dive hunt in the Killing Cove of Taiji Japan is also ok? The captivity Industry – in Australia it is Seaworld QLD and Dolphin Marine Magic Coffs Harbour – exploit dolphins for entertainment and greed. The Captivity industry is the reason that up to 20000 dolphins are slaughtered every year in Japan!
I am sure that you will have petitions to take the ad off the air and I WILL BE THE FIRST PERSON TO SIGN