During pressure situations in the BCM office (such as looming material deadlines or a furious game of table tennis), it’s not unusual to hear the odd swear word being let loose. Despite this, the profanities have not yet sneaked their way into our advertising communications. But there are many campaigns out there which have a bit of fun with four letter filth. These include:
1) Air Asia’s press and outdoor execution which launched their services from the Gold Coast:
2) Fernwood’s foxy positioning across all of their current communication:
3) UK Burger King’s homage to the “king” which launched a couple of weeks ago…
What do you think?
***king brilliant or ***king lazy? Or can some brands get away with it while others fail horribly?
Let us know what you think in the comments below. All comments will be ***king moderated.
Update (4/3/10): This is the ad Greidy refers to in the comments. Pure gold.
Nathan Bush is an Interactive Strategist at BCM
Works ***king well for burger***king.
I love them Nathan.
I also remember a great radio spot for Falcon where everything was Falcon this and Falcon that.
And a Sofa King bus side with a headline which read, ‘Our prices are Sofa King low!’
I’m a big fan of the Burger King as well (especially the broader campaign where you can design your own ***king shirt). I also like the Air Asia one (declaration of interest: I was working at the creative agency who developed it at the time). But the Fernwood ad puzzles me. For me, it is so far off their previous image, isn’t very clever and from the quick social survey I’ve done, it’s not very appealing for its audience. I would be happy to hear otherwise though…
I find them ***king offensive Nathan and the mother***kers responsible should take a good hard ***king look at themselves.
For me it depends on whether its an obvious or well sued one. Phuket is a stupid one cause I’ve heard it heaps (hell, I use it!)
Sofa King … that was great!
ha ha ha I meant “used” … not “sued”
Nathan, I’m with you on Fernwood. Seems pretty ***king lazy, way ***king off brand, and out of sync with their target audience.
Nathan, I think your comment about the Fernwood campaign lacking appeal for its intended audience is on the mark. If a brand has an irreverent or edgy image to reflect – then fine. But if the work looks like an excuse for word play that doesn’t seem to consider how customers and potential customers might respond then it’s probably best kept in the schoolyard or old Carry On movies. “Cor I wouldn’t ’alf fancy a bit of crumpet Nurse Tickler! Ooh saucy vicar, wait ’til morning tea time!”
Interesting that all you blokes think the Fernwood ad doesn’t hit the target market. I’m female and in the target market and think it’s great. As for the Phuket ad, well not surprising that you all find that appealing. Personally, I don’t.
Jeff, I put that moderation warning in for characters like you.
Mr Oyster, this is no surprise given that you are the king of Dad jokes.
Kev and Al, agree with you. Kev, are you trying to top Jeff’s star count? Al, you lost me at “crumpet”.
Jen, good to hear. That’s why I put it out there as a q – would like to hear various opinions on it. My judgement was made from my own opinion and a social sample of five (all in the target market) who all had the same opinion. But there’s obviously an audience (the marketing manager for a start) who like it otherwise it would never have got this far. I suppose that’s the risk with using edgy humour – it tends to polarise opinion. There’s rarely a fence sitting moment.
You all know I love the puns and wordplays… but when there’s profanities involved it feels cheapened. Like watching a stand up comedian who’s only bag of tricks is to throw in a few gratuitous four-letter bombs every 30 seconds to shock people into laughing at their mediocre gags.
That said, I love the vintage Fourex slogan: “Australians wouldn’t give a XXXX for anything else”… Gold*.
*Pun intended. Don’t be Bitter about it.
Scott you’ve officially broken the punometer!
I was repulsed by the Fernwood ads. Not the play on words: I rang my friends in London to see if they could get me a Burger King shirt and the Air Asia ads are among my favourites of the ****ing genre. But the language use actually makes me think if I went to Fernwood I would walk out speaking fluent bogan. Sooooo not foxy.