Ogilvy Sydney draws on American Beauty to promote Primo bacon

There’s an awful lot of people credited for this ad. Did any of them voice a concern that it wasn’t a super great idea?

Hideous and totally unappetising. The American Beauty reference is irrelevant, why is he fantasising when he’s already eating it? Faced with a dull cheese sandwich, i would understand his fantasy, but this is just nonsense.

Forgot to credit Leo Burnett with the tagline.

Do the credits relate to the creators of the film or the ad? Simply ‘borrowing’ a scene from a popular film (10 years ago) is not really creative, is it??

Never in the history of food advertising has anyone made a tasty product appear so unappetising.

A bloke’s armpits next to bacon? – Really?

And when you consider the American Beauty petals thing has been done to death already this really is a double fail.

Terrible, lazy – no original thinking here.

Yuck yuck yuck and yuck. I loathe and detest all adverts that waste food. I find this obscene and gross. Nothing will turn me off this product faster that this advert.

Eroticising chowing down on an unhealthy pig product. Being showered in processed death. Mmm… What’s the sequel? Now I’m fantasizing about my next heart attack and my porky waistline. Mmm… Bacon is the best.

Seriously? How would the client want someone lying on/in a food product….I cannot imagine a better way to make food unappealing…appalling ad

Stole a movie scene and a tag line. Quality original work

The font used for the “Good morning bacon” graphic also seems deceptively similar to the Strongbow “hand picked by hand” font.

To echo many other comments.. where is the originality that you would expect from an agency of this stature?

Garry… completely agree. I think the bacon fantasy would be much more relevant if the guys was being forced to eat a quinoa salad or something vegetarian because his wife took him to an organic café in Newtown. Now that would have worked!

Lighten up people! It’s funny and memorable and makes me feel like a bacon sandwich.

Hang on.. Isn’t this a Doritos ad?

I love bacon but this ad makes me feel physically ill. Doesn’t anyone focus group these things???

I’m still weeping over the waste of all that bacon

CCO: Steve Back bacon
CGH: Shaun Hamagan
AD: Well-done Gammoncao
CW: Scott Rasher

There are almost as many dumb comments here as you get on CampaignBrief. Nice work Wellison. I love bacon and this ad has made me want some. I wouldn’t give this a gong but I will get some bacon for breakfast.

@Wow

It’s average.

Deal with it.

Where is everyone’s sense of humour? Great ad.

Oh Wow, you erudite curly tail you.

I am appalled.
Animals die to provide us a nutrious food, not for unthinking advertisers to play with. It is our moral responsibility to use the meat from these animals in the best possible way and to always respect where it came from. Meat is not just another grocery product.
Please think again Primo and O&M

I love bacon but this makes me feel ill. Don is Good. Primo is Bad.

In the old days, TV commercials consisted almost entirely of stand-alone gags, Writers told a complete dramatic story in 30 secs. For example, the setup committed in the first shot, and we got the gag in the last.

The following spot, they told the same story with slightly different circumstances. This guaranteed that the medium as a whole could be work beautifully in 30 secs.

With the introduction of the internet, the commercial was born on the web. Now commercials had to be graphic design or print as well as a story. We battled it out. but didn’t solve the problems of merging the both. In story terms, this meant, above all,work become confused – it did not know if it was for the web or for print or for TV .

No longer confined to a straightjacket, a writer could get to a deeper truth by using tv form to get the idea across – but what does tv even mean anymore?

This had a huge structural effect on the TV commercials, because it meant that the unit of measure of the TV commercial— was no longer about how well it entertained, but how many hits it received online. The canvas on which the writer worked became ten times as long and ten times as complex.

So, it’s no coincidence that the revolution in commercials occurred hand in hand with internet coming into its own as an art form. But how precisely did the commercial form revolutionize the TV in both character and plot?

Much has been made of the fact that commercials sparked a fundamental shift from commercials needing a gag, an idea. As ideas, is now a misnomer, and it obscures the revolutionary nature of the current commercials. But Yet…the best commercials— are all about story.

The more a commercial is based on a well told story, as opposed to visual spectacle and detail, the more its authorship is based on the idea. In the days of before the internet it was easy to distinguish the boring visuals of the small screen from the grandiose spectacle commercials.

But things have changed. commercials, age of the internet, are far more epic than most movies, and they are filmed with just as much visual flair. But we need better ideas.

If you love commercials as much as I do, living through this revolution of the internet has been an incredible ride. The lone drawback, of course, is finding time the best time to act.

Still, these complex commercials, though crucial to the revolution in commercials, could not produce commercials of such high quality over so many battles to get it on air . Both connecting and contrasting. Commercials with a unique character in which each character is set in proper structural opposition to the others — is the only way commercials can create great stories in 30 secs.

The fundamental question of great commercials – Can these characters remain human, and decent, while they struggle to sell?

I think this one did it, Very well indeed.

Some serious bashing going on here – perhaps from a rival agency?
I agree with some of the sentiments and also wonder why so many people credited. Could we just name the people who actually worked on this ad rather than every member of every business who was involved.
It’s a clever idea but my two cents are: (1) Bacon is sexy. The clip from American Beauty is sexy. Why do we have a revolting man pulling revolting faces in slow motion? Yes, the target market might be tubby, ugly people who eat bacon for breakfast lunch and dinner, but since when did advertising get so ‘real’? (2) Where are the eggs?

This is really awful, no further comments warrented

If the profit on incremental sales covers the total cost of the campaign then the campaign is a success.

@ Leon so that’s the only measure of success? There is no effect , positive or negative on the brand? Glad you told us that. Wish we had known about that measure of success before it would have made the business so much more simple.

@Groucho delivering value to shareholders is what matters most.

It will work. It gets your attention – which 90% of ads don’t. And it makes a point in a funny way. What more do you expect from a tv spot?

@Leon that’s very short sighted.

Mmm … unexplained bacon.

Sorry it’s a fail in my book, made me feel sick. Bad add.

I am really surprised that we are in a creative industry and everyone is thinking like they live in a dark hole. Its funny. Laugh.

@Ogilvy – uninspired, lazy effort.

@Jeff – tl;dr

The comment made by Beck is outstanding…..I thought the point of the ad was to eat bacon but obviously not it’s about buying tip truck full of it and getting intimate with it…..Roll on Miss Piggy it’s on
QUOTED –
“People who love bacon will get this ad. Hopefully they’ll try and recreate the scene at home, sending sales through the roof. It’s memorable and is vastly different for the category,” said Back.

The “agency-bashing” on this site is tedious.

This might not be the next “share a coke”, but as a bacon lover it definitely caught my attention and gave me a smile.

Does it make me more likely to choose Primo at the supermarket? Probably not. But it has whet my appetite for a bacon brekky tomorrow morning.

An amusing category job and that doesn’t need to be a bad thing.

Jesus! I didn’t expect these insane comments!
I do not work for the agency or the client, I LOVE bacon, and I love these ads,

They are funny,
They are funny because they are making fun of the character in them – oh god, I won’t bother, if you don’t get it, maybe you’re not meant to.

The billboards made me spit out my coffee when driving down Parramatta Road.

Nicely done.

TERRIBLE ad. Unsophisticated, neanderthal, nauseating and seemingly revelling in the deaths of animals to feed you. Awful.

I agree with one thing – it did get my attention, in fact, reading the comments made me watch it 3 times!

But it is disgusting, and I don’t get the creepy actor in this ad?

And the American Beauty scene rip off is so not original! And the way it’s used is just terrible!