Significant seven: best radio ads

Over the next few days, we are publishing highlights from this year’s Mumbrella Annual.

1. Strepsils, Cold callers
Actors call up a radio talk show. As they’re chatting to the hosts, they start coughing and wheezing. Mid-sentence, they splutter that they need a Strepsil. The campaign even managed to get John Laws to mention the brand – though it’s not like Laws has steered away from brand namedropping in the past. This rightly won a bronze Radio Lion at Cannes for its artful subversion of the medium.
Agency: Eardrum
Writer: Ralph van Dijk

2. Scope, What do I look like?
The writers who won a Grand Prix at Cannes for the film ‘See the person’ for Scope produced the goods for radio months later. Cerebral palsy sufferer Jye challenges the listener to imagine what its like to have be disabled and be ignored all day.
Script: Male voice over (with cerebral paulsy): “What do I look like? I look like the tips of your shoes, like the back of the bus seat, your blank phone screen, like the ticking hand of your watch, the crack in the door at the end of the train, like that newspaper you’re pretending to read. When people look at me, this is what they see.”
Female voice over: “Scope ‘See Me’ September. See the person, not the disability. Donate at scopevic.org.au.”
Agency: Leo Burnett Melbourne
Writers: Andrew Woodhead, Eamonn Dixon