Hasta La Creative!

Recent years have seen a slew of hidden camera prank ads, and many of them are of dubious authenticity. But this new effort from Bosch in Belgium might take the prize for most laughably fake stunt commercial yet.

(You can watch the clip below before reading further, if you don’t want us to spoil the supposed twist for you.)

The plot line, such as it is, goes like this: Apparent cat burglars turn out to be creepy do-gooders (a.k.a. Bosch representatives) who just want to break into homes so they can vacuum downstairs while the owners are upstairs sleeping. The takeaway here is, of course, that the vacuums are surprisingly quiet.

Come daybreak, the owners are met at the door by strange men with video footage from within their homes while they slept. You know, the stuff of horror movies. But instead of slamming the door and calling the police, each homeowner seems quasi-delighted about the whole thing.

Sure, it’s a cute idea tailored to the merits of the product. But they couldn’t even get one or two of the residents to pretend to be indignant? Instead, the brand and agency BBDO Belgium in Brussels seem to have abdicated any sense that they were trying to make the illusion seem real.

In the end, ads like this need to go one way or the other: Either go for vaguely realistic (if largely questionable) reactions or just take a hard turn and let audiences enjoy the ride.

Brief:
To get selected dealers and distributors excited about the new, special high-performance, battery-operated Bosch Rotak 43 LI lawn mower – with the help of an exceptional calendar.

Solution:
Every page in the calendar is cut in a special way to initially create the individual impression of a wild and untended lawn. The recipient becomes part of the action and tears off a calendar page every day. By doing this, he is actually continuing to ‘mow’ day by day and so, bit by bit, he has a perfectly cut lawn in front of him at the end of the year. It’s an authentic and unique mowing experience, because the width of the calendar corresponds exactly to the width of the lawn mower.

Results:
Thanks to its surprising idea, the calendar quickly became a coveted collector’s item. Since its publication in the middle of December 2007, the battery-operated Bosch lawn mower has been a topic of conversation within the national German dealer network.

Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg, Germany
Executive Creative Directors: Wolf Heumann, Dirk Haeusermann, Timm Hanebeck, Sascha Hanke
Art Directors: Andy Tran, Hendrik Schweder
Graphic Design: Nadya Innamorato
Agency Producer: Philipp Wenhold
Account Supervisors: Isabell Poschadel, Inga Gerckens, Jochen Schwarz

The new induction cookers by Bosch.

Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg, Germany
Creative Directors: Arno Lindemann, Bernhard Lukas
Art Director: Jonas Keller
Copywriter: David Leinweber
Designer: Julia Stoffer