Smile Advertiser
Issue 20 | September 2011
Agency
DDB Brazil
Creative Team
Creative Director: Sergio Valente, Moacyr Netto, Rodrigo Almeida, Renata Florio Cassio Zanatta; Creation: Rodrigo Bombana, Edson Oda, Pedro Gravena
Other Credits
Other: Account Supervisor: Patricia Muratori, Ana Carolina Esposito
Date
2011
Background
Brastemp is a manufacturer of white-goods in Brazil and has been running an advertising campaign with the tagline “Inspiration changes everything. And life becomes just like a Brastemp.” www.brastemp.com
Idea
11 radio stations in Sao Paulo were persuaded to run a radio spot at exactly the same time one morning, in the middle of the rush-hour.
The voiceover said to anyone sitting in their cars, on their way to work:
"Right now, millions of people are in their cars, listening to the radio. All serious, sleepy, until an inspiration changes everything. We invite you to smile to the driver of the car next to you. If he heard this, he'll smile back .... See? Inspiration changes everything and life becomes just like... a Brastemp. "
Results
Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of Brazilians started to look around them and notice each other, smiling and interacting. In the end life goes on but the inspiration of that moment will last them forever.
Our Thoughts
Many creative briefs have a box marked Desired Response and most brief writers lazily insert something along the lines of …”sell more product”. But the Desired Response can be the most inspiring part of the brief.
Here, for Brastemp, it could easily have been “We want people to hear the commercial and smile”. At any rate, whatever it was it got the creative team thinking ‘What can we get people to DO, even though they’re stuck in heavy traffic?’
The result is genius radio advertising because it set out with the specific intention of provoking some sort of response.
Radio has become such a tired advertising medium, the typical ad just a grisly little playlet with dueling voiceovers, so thank you DDB Brazil for showing us how much more it can be. Better than anything that won Gold for radio at Cannes.