That’s what we take from this latest campaign by Toronto agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, which chose to emphasize the size of said cans and the amount of precious cargo within by extending some of the most awkward possible moments for its teenage protagonists.
The agency, which most recently caught our attention with its brilliant “app to improve agency efficiency“, could keep going with this theme indefinitely.
The potential for embarrassing hilarity would be even greater if the client were, say, Four Loko. Unfortunately, that product as we once knew and not-quite-loved it is no more–and promoting it to its real-world target audience would have been illegal anyway.
Zula Alpha Kilo created a new campaign for Interac, promoting their e-Transfer service with a comical website containing historical parodies of various time periods.
The website has three videos featuring Dr. Trapasso, “Doctor of Money Transferology, a man who has dedicated his life to studying money.” Trapasso takes the viewer on a tour of three historical time periods where his mangled historical accounts demonstrate the “perils of archaic money exchange” in attempts at humor that mostly fall flat. One of these, featured above, features Leonardo da Vinci’s failed attempts at getting reimbursed for a pizza he fronted for Michelangelo. The other two videos are in much the same goofy vein, with accounts of the first Olympic games and the westward expansion of Canada.
“People resist change,” exaplains Shari Walczak, Executive Planning Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo. “We know that consumers are not in love with cheques as a form of payment. However, we are creatures of habit and need to be reminded that there’s a better way to exchange money other than cheques or cash,” said Shari, completely ignoring the existence of debit transactions.
Zulu Alpha Kilo’s campaign also includes “video pre-rolls, standard and rich media banner ads, along with paid and organic social media support to tease audiences with the absurdity of these stories” and will run until the spring. The creative is supported with a national digital media campaign handled by Media Experts, as well as a French adaptation for the Quebec marketplace developed by TANK. Stick around for credits and “Let The Games Begin” after the jump. continued…
If you’ve ever had a nightmare boss in advertising, Zulu Alpha Kilo’s latest spot for NABS Vintage Intern Auction should appeal to you.
The NABS Vintage Intern Auction auctions off “twelve notable executives and thought leaders,” to be used as interns for a day, for the Canadian charitable group NABS, who provide assistance for people in communications and related industries who need help due to illness, injury, unemployment or financial difficulties. Winning bidders can assign their interns to do anything from giving a speech or holding a seminar to cleaning up the kitchen or getting coffee.
The spot highlights the revenge aspect of the auction, with bidders attempting to win the right to boss around a truly awful Chief Creative Officer. At the center of the spot is the eventual winning bidder, a man with an eye patch who the CCO told, “If you can work from home, you can work from Intensive Care.” He outbids the woman the CCO called “Sarah in bed and then said ‘I’m so sorry, Diane,’ which isn’t [her] name either.” I don’t know what kind of work he has for the CCO, but it won’t be pretty. Perhaps cleaning the bathroom floor with a toothbrush?
As you can tell from the synopsis, Zulu Alpha Kilo isn’t afraid to push the boundaries a little bit with some risque humor, and the result is a spot that is actually funny. We’re guessing that since it’s for a good cause, no one will be offended. No CCOs were harmed in the making of this video. At least not any that didn’t deserve it.
Here’s the full list of the “interns” up for bids, in case your boss from hell is one of them:
Claude Carrier – President, DentsuBos
Mary Maddever – VP & Editorial Director, Brunico Publishing
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