This British Ad With a Grumpy Ogre Turns Out to Be Monstrously Sweet
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“Simon the Ogre,” a two-minute mini-epic commercial from agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay, was popular in the U.K. earlier this year but went largely unnoticed in the U.S. before winning a silver Lion at Cannes last week.
We won’t spoil the plot of the effects-driven film, but Fredrik Bond’s direction is solid, as are the editing and performances. Some viewers apparently didn’t like what they saw, though, and the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority received at least 80 complaints soon after the ad’s debut “for causing offense to people with disfigurements and for trivializing disability.”
I have a different critique. I think it’s a memorable spot that makes its point in a novel way, but Simon behaves less like an ogre than a big mopey baby. Dude, suck it up! Slap a smile on that monstrous mug!
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