DEJA VIEW: RAC UNWIRED
August 6 2008, 10:20 am | | 31 Comments
There has been much comment over the new RAC campaign out of The Brand Agency. One Campaign Brief reader has seen a strong similarity between the television ads and a spot for Unwired that has been airing this year in the Eastern States.
The RAC tvcs, which launched last month, use the same kind of stop-motion filming technique as the Unwired spot created in January this year by Three Drunk Monkeys, Sydney and Hackett Films.
View the Unwired spot. Or here if it won’t play.
View the RAC spot.
31 Comments
Link for Unwired spot not working.
Shit a brick. i wonder if the client is ‘Happy’ now?
Tis, Tis.
Just because the product isn’t the same fellas, doesn’t mean you can rip off an idea.
Wow. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence…not!
Just because an ad appears for a different product and only on the eastern seaboard doesn’t excuse using the idea for a WA client.
Knew it was too good an ad to be original.
Forkin hell.
This ad has had national exposure everyone.
Check out http://www.campaignbrief.com/2008/02/three-drunk-monkeys-make-it-ea.html
There’s no way the brand creatives would have copied the idea from Unwired. The techniques are the same so I wonder if the production company used the Unwired commercial as a reference in their treatment. It does look like the director was aware of the previous commercial.
Bet it will still win at the next PADC’s. What will that teach us?
4.26. Work at The Brand do you?
Jesus, isn’t there a danger we are all taking ourselves a little too seriously here? If we are going to judge the Brand harshly for this, let’s level out the playing field a bit. It could be pointed out that this year’s Caxton competition winner has been done at least twice before, or that the much-lauded X-ray seatbelt idea borrows heavily from a UK Cycle safety campaign featuring X-rays of kids in cycle helmets. FFS This is Perth and we’re million of miles from anywhere. If it sells a bit more stuff or saves a few more lives it’s doing its job. Move on
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Unwired spot isn’t a particularly clever *idea* or *insight* with a big chunk of crappy CG. (Google RAC Insurance Liz Murphy and check this out http://motionographer.com/2008/08/04/is-it-really-all-stop-motion/). An execution is not an idea. And 2 seconds of spoons going into a drawer isn’t a rip.
I’m Simon te Brinke, Managing Director of Gramercy Park. And for the record, yes RAC is a client of Gramercy Park. I tried to register so I can comment legitimately without using “ANON”!
This is an interesting discussion string. However (!) I reckon if you have something to say about this campaign then make yourself known – don’t do it anonymously. Your comments are worthless without a face or a name.
Here’s my two cents; According to thinkexist.com, Eugene Delacroix, the great French “romantic” painter (1798-1863), once quoted “What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.”
And for the record (as ‘Simon’ and not ‘annon’) I think the Brand Agency team have done a fantastic job with these spots. And who cares if the idea is / or is not “original”. Will the spots sell more insurance? Yep.
Using a similar creative treatment and technique, here’s another great spot for Renault currently on air; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3syB71ja_f4
Good on you Brand Agency and good on you RAC!
Thats all now, I’m going to bed.
Simon
Stick the ad in the PADCs but save your money globally. Pes’ “Human Skateboard” spot pisses over all other stop-frame at the moment.
http://www.eatpes.com/human_skateboard.html
I am intrigued as to which part of the unwired spot has ‘already been said is still not enough’ that the Brand RAC version managed to elaborate on. Soundtrack perhaps, or did they run out of money?
If I was paying an agency a bucket load of money for their creative thinking and all they came up with was a b grade version of an ad that was already running in another part of the country I’d be asking for a refund.
Hi, I’mon the Brink (of greatness) here.
I liked the RAC spots, especially the car version, but seeing that is is a rip off is very disappointing. Wouldn’t be so bad but there are some very similar scenes. Sorry Brandians, not that cool.
‘FFS This is Perth and we’re million of miles from anywhere.’ That old chestnut hey.
Yee haa!
Taking Simon te brinke’s lead (and not being a cheeky anonymous contributor to this blog) this is Kerry Milne – the person who wrote the brief for the RAC campaign.
As a client it can be quiet confronting and gutting seeing creative executions that are similar to work you have just poured your heart an soul into alongside your agency. The first time I saw Unwired I was surprised at how similar parts of the tvc are to our 60 sec execution – but after watching it again I realised that their tvc actually wasn’t as cohesive or strong in message delivery as ours. We also have 3 other 30 sec executions that look completely different again – still in the stop-motion technique.
The upshot is, I am not questioning Kurt and Josh at TBA or even Lizzy at Taxi because I saw how these executions evolved from paper to screen. We was there every step of the way so there was very little room for “copycatting”. Most of you will know I have very few allegiances to The Brand Agency, but I think some of you might have seen a little more controversy here than what I have.
We appreciate you have your awards and industry recognition angles, but at the end of the day we just want to sell product!
My two cents…
I’m with Simon. The anonomous comment thing on these blogs is lame. If you’ve got something to say that’s meaningful, not petty, at least put your name on it. If what you’ve got to say is of value, you may even pick up a client. Surely the greatest award of all is results. .. but heh, that’s an age old argument.
So Kerry, you don’t care what the creative is (even if it’s a rip off) as long as it sells more insurance?
This is great. Much more entertaining than the TV!!
Simon – “Who cares if the idea is not original?” You are right. Let’s get rid of all the overpaid people in the creative department and replace them with more suits 🙂
John – going on experience the lame anonymous comments are not making it on to the site. This is a small industry here [thus the anon] and I realise now that a free-for-all blog would not be a good thing [apologies to CB for my stupid posting yesterday!!!!!!]. John, another comment I would like to make is that I have never met anyone in who works in advertising that does not believe that results for our client is our first priority.
Kerry – Coincidences in ideas and executions happen every day. Just ask Kim Shaw as he regularly runs a Dejavu piece in CB Asia magazine. I don’t believe in a million years that your agency copied that commercial. The treatment is similar in several respects so chances are the director was influenced by it. This happens every day and it does not detract from the RAC idea.
Anon – as for all us Anons I think we can all agree that this is a nice commercial from the RAC. When was the last time you could say that!!
That’s not what Kerry was saying 11.58. Stirrer!
(CB has moved this posting to this thread)
“The rules of engagement are simple: Comments that are seen to be more abusive than witty and/or constructive will not be posted.”
So please can you explain why a non threatening, non abusive, completely valid comment pertaining to whether or not the RAC would be looking for a new Director now has been refused posting?
Simon anonymous post are fine. We all know not to take them too seriously.
Gotta agree with 12:06 and, finally, nicely put Kerry.
Yes 12.06 you are right in pointing out the coincidences occurr everyday in this biz. Particularly when it comes to using techniques that are flavour of the month in movies,music vids and other mediums. The whole stop frame thing was getting a load of postings on Youtube a while back with some really amazing stuff being done. Get on there and have a look. It’s no suprise that a raft of ads have started to appear not just here but around the world using the same stop frame style. How many ads have borrowed from the latest movie release or the latest Music video or video game? Too many to keep track of. What you’ve got to look at in this case is the insight and the end take out. It’s a nibce arresting way of delivering the thought that when you’re thinking of insurance you’ve actually got shitloads more than what you may think so you better think carefully about it before deciding who you are prepared to trust with it all. Is that new and original way of looking at it? That is the real question here.
Answer anybody?
Okay, I’ll answer.
I think the problem for some is that the ‘technique’ IS the idea. And the Unwired spot even has the same elements (fridge magnets, cutlery etc) so it’s very similar indeed.
Coincidence? I don’t think so actually. It’s fine to borrow techniques of course, it’s what everyone does, but this just feels too close for comfort.
I agree it’s a nice insight (and a better one than the Unwired spot) and yes, it’s an original way of approaching insurance BUT it’s been done in an unoriginal way.
However, in terms of what the local target audience will see and react to, it should be a resounding success.
I wanna know what Brand creatives think.
Let’s just hope unwired don’t decide to roll out in perth. That would make my undies feel a little sweaty if I was RAC.
As someone who does not work in the advertising space I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that both of these ads, for all their Peter Gabrielesque trimmings, say absolutely nothing about the product they are supposedly selling. If you watch the ads up up until the last 2 or 3 seconds and then stop do you have any idea at all of what they are selling you?
Sure some may say that the idea is to get you interested enough to watch the ad so that they can deliver the sales message at the end. If that is the case then why not just show any old ‘interesting 28 seconds’ of guff and then stick up a strapline?
Granted the RAC ad tries to tie it all together by relating the moving items to the idea that you have to insure them all, so well done there guys. Shame I can’t say the same for the Wired ad. They might as well have shown the last 28 seconds of the 2006 AFL grand final for all the product placement it would deliver.
It would be interesting to see the results for this ad, specifically whether the recall is for the RAC.
Interesting to note that despite the significantg marketing spend, and the launch of the new RAC Branding, RAC Home insurance grew by liitle more than 2% in a period which saw the market grow by around 10%. To partially rip off a number by The Monks from the ’70’s… “Nice Ads.. shame about the Sales…”