Thursday, July 05, 2007

Buttercup Test

The Summer of Love has started, so Graham tells me, but looking out the window this afternoon, I’m not so sure. Still, inside the fluorescent light is shining, there are some lovely, freshly painted blue walls and of course – a lot of love – for Marketing!

To continue with these themes of summer and love then, I came across the new advert for Anchor butter on
Brand Republic and it really brought a smile to my face.

Anchor is repositioning itself as a free-range product and as such is backing this with a £3 million TV campaign. The TV ad features the old classic buttercup test, where a buttercup is placed under your chin to see whether you like butter or not. The ad starts with a young girl picking up a buttercup to do the test, as it progresses the buttercup is passed from one person to another until it is given to the object of one man’s affections on a bus. You can watch the execution below. It’s an idea that seems so obvious I’m surprised no one has done it before.


The buttercup test is one of those things you forget all about (especially if you don’t have any young children in your life) and the advert manages to take you right back to when you were little. Which, of course, is exactly what it is trying to do, play on your emotions, while highlighting their new position. But, I like it. It tugs on the old heartstrings giving a sense of nostalgia, but it’s done in a simple, gentle way.

So, here’s your first reason to love marketing – it resurrects long forgotten memories that can bring a smile to your face.

And this smiley face is off to find a buttercup to test myself out with.

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3 Comments:

At 5:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nostalgia.... yep, love marketing... like it. well said. I agree, it's likely to become a little more prevalent as people are softening up and becoming evermore 'concious' in more ways than just eco... it's the rebirth of 'nice' no??

B
stylesniper.com

 
At 8:17 AM, Blogger Lisa Breslin said...

I hope so Stylesniper - it's nice to be nice!

 
At 12:47 PM, Blogger Stanley Johnson said...

Emotion is such a powerful tool. You can have as many big budget ads as you want, I love a tv spot that touches me emotionaly. Great find Lisa, thanx for sharing.

 

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