Aussie Veet ad that went viral to run in NZ and Canada
A quarter-page tactical ad for hair removal product Veet is now running in newspapers in New Zealand and Canada after the Euro RSCG-produced work went viral yesterday.
The “Goodbye Bush” ad to mark the departure of President Bush ran as a simple quarter page in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Melbourne’s Herald Sun yesterday. But after readers scanned in the ad and forwarded it to friends, it went round the world.
Rowan Dean, executive creative director at Euro RSCG in Sydney, told Mumbrella: “It’s been incredible. We started realising that it was going to be quite big at about 3pm yesterday, when people started forwarding it back to us. By the end of the day we were getting it in emails from friends in comapnies across Australia, and most of the other creative departments in town were letting us know. There’ve been thousands of comments on the various sites around the world.”
Dean said that copywriter John Gault and art director Patrycja Lukjanow had the idea before the election, but “held their breaths” until the best moment. And he praised his client, category manager Anja Voss, for investing what was for the brand a significant media spend in the ad. Media agency OMD also had a key role to play in working with the two News Ltd papers to ensure placement and get advice on whetehr to run the ads on yesterday or today, he said.
the difficulty now for Veet’s media planners will be when to run the ad again. the agency would’ve known that the 21 jan would’ve seen blanket obama coverage – and it is the juxtaposition which made the ad work so well.
but how and where will they decide to run it again?
Agree with Public Relations Sydney. Good timing, a simple ad & a clever tie-in with a topical event. Full marks! It also goes to show you can’t really plan ‘viral’ (and those that pretend they can are mugs) – it’s up to the punters out there to determine what gets passed on and what ends up on the scrap heap. In this instance, it was a hard copy ad that was scanned and sent on, which requires more effort than simply hitting the forward button. Great placement too, under pic of Obama – worth paying the loading fee! Well done!
Any reason why they would want to run it again, Kevin?
@dianne bayley – isn’t that what Tim’s story is about: how the ad will be running elsewhere?
*rolls eyes* oh please. Goodbye Bush by Veet is sooo catchy that it will capture the world’s attention? No. We have to do better than this.
Is this your “positive” article Mumbles? *sad face* okidoki.
Hi Laurel,
Unfortunately that comment does sum up a big part of the communications industry’s biggest problems.
Too often, we forget that ad agencies have a job to do.
Instead, people end up obsessing with what’s new and clever, rather than what’s effective.
I was a little guilty of it this week. When I saw the ad on Wednesday, I didn’t link to it or comment on it. To me, it was okay, but that was it.
But the point is: I obviously missed something (I still don’t quite know what). It did work. It did go viral. Google the words “Veet” and “Bush” if you don’t believe me. The links I provided are only a small sample.
The ad agency gave that client a very big return for a modest media investment.
Fortunately for the client, Euro created a piece of work for the public, rather than for the likes of you and me.
It’s all very well to say “we have to do better than this”. Sure we do – but if I was Veet or Euro RSCG I’d been feeling pretty pleased with myself right now.
Cheers,
Tim
“Too often, we forget that ad agencies have a job to do.
Instead, people end up obsessing with what’s new and clever, rather than what’s effective.”
I couldn’t agree more Tim. A fabulously simple ad that captured the imagination of the audience. Its good fun and quite typical Aussie humour. As it is a global brand I wonder whether anyone in another region had to sign it off and whether they hesitated.
“Instead, people end up obsessing with what’s new and clever, rather than what’s effective.””
…could not agree more. It’s really easy to sell out Australian culture as uncouth trailer trash for low hanging dollars than it is to commit to longterm and engagement. But hey! at least it was funny!
Congratulations to all agencies who are beavering away to follow up to Bush Gone and Where the Bloody Hell Are You. I’m sure you won’t have any problems not only sinking lower, but taking everyone else with you.
Incidentally, these childish jokes actually do appeal to my sense of humour. but only when made by a real person, and only the first time I hear them. By the 50th time, I see past the infantile tagline into a darker pervasive unwholesome perversion of our Australian Brand overseas. Brought to you by people “who are only doing their job”.
This is a great piece of work.
Congrats to Euro & Veet (for not being too politically correct).
I’ve received it days later from ten individuals at last count(all female), who’ve seen it for a cheeky humourous poke at (lets face it) a man that has provided us with loads of great comedy material.
If anything they took the tone and the person and completely did a topical approach justice.
Besides who cares if you’ve seen it before – others haven’t so it’s still original for them.
My bet is the people who it was meant for have seen Veet in a new, maybe better light.
Nice work!
I would think Veet would be delighted.