Give blood: Don’t be put off by a little prick
This year, World Blood Donor Day is being hosted by Australia and to launch this major event, Naked has created a communications campaign that pays homage to one of the greatest gifts a person can ever give – the gift of blood.
The concept ‘Don’t Be Put Off By A Little Prick’, plays on one of themain psychological barriers associated with blood donation – theanxiety around the needle itself.
“The ‘Little Prick’ uses humour to relieve people from theseriousness of the issue – for just a moment. Since therapy began,humour has consistently been shown to be a much more effective form ofbehavioural change than the shock tactics we so often see,” says AdamFerrier, Consumer Psychologist and Partner at Naked.
Adds Paul Swann, Executive Ideas Director, Naked: “Why let a little prick stand in the way of saving lives?”
World Blood Donor Day takes place on June 14 and not only aims tothank all of those people that have given blood around the globe butalso to highlight the fact that most of the world’s population do nothave access to safe blood. Over 80 million units of blood are collectedworldwide each year but only 38% of these are collected in thedeveloping countries where 82% of the global population actually live.
“We are thrilled to be supporting this great event and hope thatthe ‘Little Prick’ encourages people on a global level to address theiranxieties around blood donation and receive a small pinch for the sakeof saving the lives of up to three others,” says Frankie Ralston-Good,Managing Director, Naked Melbourne.
LITTLE PRICK CREDITS
Agency – Naked Communications
Executive Ideas Director – Paul Swann & Jonathan Pease
Agency Producer – Jonathan Worsley
Agency Director – Briony Amey
Production Company – Luscious
Director – Michael Joy
Producer – Lawrence Foster
56 Comments
They shouldn’t do comedy.
What a woeful effort. At its core is a play on words that I first saw in an AWARD annual for the hepatitis injection at least a decade ago.
It’s always interesting to use humour when dealing with serious topics, but you need to be so much funnier and fresher than this effort.
Oh my god! The pun it seems, is far from dead. Words fail me…
I love it when people try to backwards post rationalise a pun.
According to the release, this is “A campaign that pays homage to one of the greatest gifts a person can ever give”. Does it? Where? Where is this homage of which you speak? I thought it was just one of those visual representations of a proposition a la “Irritating eyes” that was funny about 8 years ago.
Why can’t they just tell it like it is: “One of the guys came up with a funny, so we managed to sell it in to the client because we’re paying for the ad anyway. We hope our funny makes you laugh as much as it makes us feel clever. The end.”
On the list of reasons why people don’t give blood, I sincerely doubt the prospect of a needle that they will feel for about 2 seconds ranks high enough on the list to form the basis of a strategy.
Either way, the creative doesn’t fit the strategy or the strategy doesn’t fit the creative.
ba doom doom tish
Shite.
Another nail in the Aussie Ad coffin.
Fuck, if we can’t even do proactive that’s good – have we got ANY talent?
(Let’s face it, the Give Blood ad the director was originally hired to work on will run in a week or so.)
Oh, and a word of warning.
As seniors know this, this will be a valuable lesson to all juniors out there.
If this ad EVER sees the light of day, your agency will be sued by both Parlophone and EMI.
(Never use even THREE notes of a Queen track without permission, so even though your ‘prick’ playing ‘we are the champions’ might be cute, it could get you sacked.)
Every time Naked actually makes an ad they’re exposed for what they really are.
Little prick for Blood Bank, big cock-up for Thredbo.
Long live the pun!!!
great cause, great brief – shallow, unconvincing and glib effort. saying ‘don’t be scared of needles’ doesn’t stop people being scared of needles…what a waste of time. utter shit.
2:40 – Very interesting pick up with The Queen track. This posting might vanish mysteriously in the near future….
The PR release doesn’t lie. The concept did relieve me of something…and that moment to an age to flush.
WELL I MUST SAY I VERY RARELY FEEL COMPELLED TO WRITE ON THIS BLOG.
BUT THAT REALLY IS TERRIBLE.
WILL THAT MAKE ANYONE GIVE BLOOD.
NO.
IS IT FACILE, PUERILE AND SHOCKINGLY IMMATURE.
YES.
I GUESS THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MEDIA AGENCY DOES CREATIVE.
WELL DONE THE CLIENT.
YOU HAVE JUST PUT ME OFF GIVING BLOOD.
YOU DON’T NEED A LITTLE PRICK TO DO THAT.
HE IS SITTING IN YOUR MEDIA AGENCY.
P.S. EXECUTIVE IDEAS DIRECTOR ON THE CREDITS..
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN.
I THINK SOMEONE SHOULD STICK TO TV PRESENTING.
THIS REALLY DOES A DISSERVICE TO CREATIVES AND POTENTIAL BLOOD DONORS .
HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME EVERYONE CONCERNED.
what does Naked actually do? Besides PR themselves.
Fuck me . . . that has to be the worst thing I’ve ever seen.
Worse than Nandos portugasm.
Not to mention shouldnt your own employees in the ad. It’s not even real reactions. cheap bastards.
seems the pretenders have been found out
I think that this, hands down, is the BEST ad I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
Just because you can make an ad doesn’t mean you should.
I’m going to go against the grain and say it’s fucking great because it’s a first thought pun, there’s no tie back to a real strategy and the give a shit factor is missing.
I’m not even going to bother going in to the press release or how they ‘backwards post rationalised’ it. Hope you aint not a righter fillip, yet i are agree with your postings.
There’s nothing wrong with puns. That’s not the problem. Puns can be great. This just is not funny. So next time mr consumer psychologist do a PhD in humour. Or hire some real creatives, not fashion commentators. Maybe MINDSHARE & clients should have a look at what happens when you let media agencies do creative work.
Like so much of what our friends at Naked (and their ilk) do, it sounds great on paper. However, when it is actually brought to life it lacks the substance and soul everyone expected and hoped for. Ideas are meaningless without execution. I’m just surprised they weren’t smart enough to realise that the moment you get into executions, you get exposed. Can’t hide behind a 337-page PowerPoint doco.
These media joints should stick to what they do best…MEDIA-VERSAL!!
No but seriously, what do you expect from a fashion commentator. Really!!
Notice that Naked is not a Cannes contender this year. They never have been. And no wonder, if this is the standard of work they produce. Embarrassing. Leave the ideas to the creative agencies: Clems, BMF, Saatchi, Glue Society, Mojo, DDB….
6:41 – if you had trouble reading my post it’s nothing to do with me. I am a righter. You’re a wronger. And a spanker. xxx firrip
OH. MY. GOD.
This is insulting to the industry and insulting to the cause.
A perfectly timed response for the earlier post where Marco Rimini from Mindshare claims media agencies will replace creative agencies to become the ‘spine’ of the industry. Obviously that won’t be the case, thanks Naked for clearing that one up.
made me laugh, but maybe for the wrong reason
definitely doesn’t make me wanna give blood
What a piece of garbage.
I hope every one at Naked is a blood or plasma donor and heads on down on June 14… At least that way they are making a contribution because this “idea” is not going help the cause at all!
Stick to what you’re good at.
Chk-chk BOOM!
A fascinating lesson in humility.
I recently worked in an agency in which I was often the suit and the producer as well as the creative. I gained a degree of respect for both of those roles that I had never previously had. Managing client relationships requires skill and patience and being a producer demands experience and an eye for detail. I was pretty shit at both of those roles.
I hope this ad builds a degree of respect amongst strategists, media planners, channel dudes etc. for the task of generating and executing creative ideas. It’s a lot harder than it may seem from the outside.
That’s the beauty of creative ideas. There is nowhere to hide. (Unlike in a whizz bang strategy document).
This makes me want to give blood using a razor blade and my wrists.
‘Since therapy began, humour has consistently been shown to be a much more effective form of behavioural change than the shock tactics we so often see,” says Adam Ferrier, Consumer Psychologist and Partner at Naked.’
Thanks for that. I’m sure everyone who reads this will now feel better for this ground-breaking revelation.
So why didn’t you use it?
Copied from the Nurse Jackie campaign for showtime in the states, don’t people realise that we view other work around the world, due to this crazy invention called the internet
http://www.sho.com/site/nursejackie/home.do?source=m_nj1_dlisted_blogads_may09_njhome
Naked need new blood.
Just student quality rubbish. Doesn’t even merit being called a first idea. Certainly not ‘Australia’s Next Top Commercial’ quality. If the Executive Ideas Directors thought this was good enough to put their names on then they showed very poor judgement.
Read the comments first.
Thought, it can’t be that bad.
I was wrong.
I think back to the lovley spot from BMF a few years back where the film crew gave blood… And I sigh with sadness. Truly awful.
These comments are about the only place where Naked isn’t PR’ing themselves.
Dear Naked,
Take a look at what BMF did for the Red Cross and giving blood a couple of years back.
Then have a look at your ad.
And hang your heads in shame.
I spelt the word lovely wrong. I am an art director after all. Ooops. Can’t spell ooops wrong.
Not so much Naked, as exposed.
It reminds me of an old english “seaside” postcard from Blackpool 30 years ago.
It said – “No nurse I said prick his boil”.
Five people to produce this…mmmm.
And what is an “Executive Ideas Producer”?
Is that similar to a “Waste Management Director” – that’s me who puts the bins out in the morning.
Sometimes the vitriol on this blog is unwarranted, but in this case it probably doesn’t go far enough.
Sweet holy jesus. If I was responsible for this, I’d be keeping very fucking quiet about it. And then I’d probably be looking at re-training as an architect or a lawyer or something.
Purile first-thought with almost no merit whatsoever. If the insight is that people don’t donate blood because they’re afraid of needles, any half-decent creative could work to that, to produce something at least screenworthy. This idea is a 20 minute effort, and that’s sad.
Appalling, appalling execution. No skill, no care, no love, no effort. It’s almost like a spoof-ad, where the team went out of their way to make it look cheap, nasty and shoddy. Brand Power has better production values than this, really they do.
It’s both a terrible ad for the blood bank, and for Naked’s ability to execute their strategies. Take it down, fellas. It’ll kill your new creative offering before it’s even gotten off the ground.
Hey Naked.
Welcome to a blog that’s
full of little pricks.
They’re right this time though.
It’s ‘bloody’ awful.
I just submitted a media plan to the media-planning-blog.
I bet they’re pissing themselves at it over there at the moment.
Looks like a murder scene.
Nothing to see boys, move along…
Boooooooooooo hisssssss.
I’ve never slagged an ad on this blog. Ever.
I think this blog does the industry a dis-service with it’s hypocritcal, jealous, petty, anonymous comments.
But Naked, honestly, does this industry even more harm.
It’s Thredbo stuff, and this crap, is beyond shit.
It’s a disgrace. It’s shit work, and even worse, it’s shit work that won’t work.
I beg clients to leave them.
Thredbo – “Are you in?”
Donate blood – “Don’t be scared of a little prick”
So this is what the industry has come to? Thanks Naked
I am completely embarrassed.
And don’t rely on the old ‘We don’t make work to make other creatives happy – we make work for consumers’ bullshit. Consumers will hate this shit. It’s not clever, compelling or engaging.
Lynchy writes the best puns in the industry.
This doesn’t even stack up to a late Friday arvo Lynch-pun.
Naked = Biggest fakers in adland
Discuss
We open on a bunch of people typing on a computer about a little prick..
Naked, you have been caught with your pants down.
Please get out of the business.
As to the client. You make my blood boil.
Both of you, go play in the traffic.
Give blood, go see a MAMMOTH MAMMOTH gig!
Naked?
They should be called “The emperors new clothes”.
How embarrassing