Accidental pirates: the extended version
UPDATED 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
The 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.
44 Comments
There is a BIG difference between buying an unauthorised DVD copy off an illegal vendor in say Thailand and downloading a movie via bittorrent.
One can assist in funding global terrorism, trafficking and illegal drug activities. The other, more more often than not, can actually benefit the creators http://www.authorama.com/free-culture-8.html
Suggestion: Watch what you upload to Campaign Brief.
What a bloody shocker. The fairly important message is lost in the execution . . . It comes across as ‘arse pirates’ with the cross dressing . . . What’s with the Kenney Everatt stuff?
True. Why trvialize such an important subject?
yeah, i’m not sure if putting an actor playing all parts has much to do with getting people to stop and think about what they’re doing…couldn’t you just show a kid being fined $250,000 and doing 10 years hard time? Now THAT would get people thinking…
Yes, very ordinary ad for a very powerful message. I normally really like Furnace work, but not this time.
It’s funny, I get it, and the insight/message is clear. And it’s got that quirky Furnace vibe to it.
I prefer the “Piracy is Stealing” promo at the start of DVDs that you rent from the video rental places. Then again, that too is annoying so maybe I should download movies from a bit torrent site and avoid it altogether. I don’t get how this clip is supposed to make you think or how it is supposed to persuade people not to do it? Big Fail in my opinion.
Watch what you watch is a great line, but not sure about the Great Britain-esque execution.
Quirky my arse.
It’s fun, looks good and ‘Watch what you watch.’ makes it work.
that ol’ quirky furnace vibe, eh?
@ 2:41
Lurk moar, then comment.
I showed three people here and none of us understood it.
Can someone please explain it?
Is that Paul Catmur in the blue snuggle sack sitting on the bed?
Thing is, if you didn’t listen to the voice over, you wouldn’t have a clue and that’s not the best thing you can say about an ad.
5.07. if you understood it without the VO then you don’t need a VO.
I like it. And it isnt shouting at me that Im doing the wrong thing. That approach clearly isnt working
Made sense and made me smile
Chances are that this might work a lot better than what has been dished up before. I kinda liked all the characters and found myself thinking about the ad. That has to be a start….
Not heavy duty cerebral stuff, but I imagine the public will like these characters and may just take in the end tag. I like the fact that they appeal to a better sense of judgement rather than SHOUTING AT US IN BOLD TYPE LIKE THE OLD CAMPAIGN. Nice job
Terrible idea……even worse execution.
Why are Pirates called Pirates?
Cause they Arrrre….
Saving the world from piracy – one scam ad at a time
6.21 yes, but the execution should at least contribute to the idea. Like the way a cartoon works, – see an interesting/relevant visual, then read the line and bang! it all makes sense. The visual element of these ads is totally irrelevant.
Bag-o-wank.
8:54
Do you even know what a scam ad is? It’s not this.
Great guys behind a great cause…………really bad execution though.
Bag-o-awesome FTW.
I’ve shown another 3 people (making a total of six) and none of us get it.
Can one of the creators PLEASE tell us why the characters are all played by the same actor and what relevance it has to ‘accidental pirates’?
I thought perhaps the same guy playing the each character was a reference to pirated stuff changing each time it’s downloaded. But that’s a long bow. Still, I like the hairdresser. Serious.
Look, I think the extended version shows this actor is a funny and versatile performer and the script is well put together but it seems so much like We Can Be Heroes by Chris Lilley that’s unfair not to mention it.
Why draw more attention to this? It’s fucking terrible.
Fully sick
With that shirt, Paulie should have a baguette and Gaulois
The characters being played by all the same actor is just something different and makes you pay attention. What’s to get? WHAT IS ART??? WHHHYYYYY IS ART????
Extending it just drags out the agony.
@ 4.37
Thank you.
Sooooooooo funny. You really made me laugh after a shocker of a day.
Ive shown half a dozen people and they laughed themselves silly………and they got it
@ 5.17
That’s one of the problems, copyright theft is serious, not funny. And the penalties are frightening.
Regardless, still no one has been able to convincingly explain why the actor plays all the characters and why this is relevant to copyright piracy.
It’s not good enough to say ‘everyone thought it was funny’.
Bet they’re pleased this got re-posted. It’s a crap ad.
This is a good campaign for similar.
http://www.sellsell.co.uk/our_work/index/industry_trust/
yes i find dan wylie funny too but can someone please TELL ME WHY THE ONE ACTOR PLAYS ALL THE CHARACTERS???
sorry for the USE OF CAPS but i’m USING THEM FOR A REASON
I’ve seen this already, my mate Johnno brought it back from Thailand on DVD.
funny how people who download movies don’t have to watch these horrid non-skippable anti-piracy intros and messages such as this…
the funny thing is, those who do piracy dont see that warning you get in the start of DVD’s.
It would make a better ad than this one altogher i reckon!
Im scared of how game companies can fine you so much for downloading its funny because I just upload a movie from the web earlier!