Top creative ads of the week: Chupa Chups, TD outdoor and more

Every week, I attempt to share a curated list of clutter-breaking creative ads. In this week’s edition, hilarious ad for Chupa Chups from India, smart outdoor for TD and more.

Chupa Chups Bites: unexpected

It’s not easy to work on categories which have very little by way of product differentiation. Carbonated fizzy drinks, confectionary such as candies don’t have much to offer by way of anchoring a product story. The ads rely heavily on the creative idea, which may be influenced by the one-line brief or could be left to the fertile imagination of the creative team. How else can one explain ideas like the one with Seal for Mountain Dew or the classic ad for Center Shock? Unfortunately, this category has seen very few breakthrough ideas. In confectionaries, taste is the only story.

We’ve all seen many ideas trying to dramatise taste: be it anchored on sour taste, strong flavour or something else in the adjacent space. The make-or-break is often in that one line perspective of describing the taste. ‘Taste that shocks you’, ‘taste that makes you forget the world’ and so on. After a long time, we have a gem in the category: taste which you can’t figure out (‘samajh ke baahar’) leading to a hilarious situation of what you think is a carrom board game. Loved it.

Agency: Ogilvy

Rexona: Martha Stewart

Body odour is usually associated with sweaty and smelly arm pits. Brands in the category have been trying to change this perception and expand product usage (literally) by cueing that other parts of the body too need protection from bad smell. It calls for literally showing how else a deodorant is to be used. A new amusing ad from Rexona in Australia uses celebrity Martha Stewart to deliver some double entendre and innuendo to drive home the message.

Agency: Thinkerbell

Doritos: spicy but not too spicy

The plumber trope might be familiar to those who have watched, ahem, a certain genre of films. Even among those who are unfamiliar with it, the obvious parody and double entendre will be apparent in a new ad for Doritos Golden Sriracha flavour. The idea is laid down thick even in the credit sequence with ‘Director of Innuendo’ and ‘Performance Enhancer’. The genre and the link to the product?

This particular chip offers a slow smolder as the flavor builds. Instead of super intense peppery notes, the combination of the yellow and green Srirachas brings a tangy, tingling taste. Like the promotional film, this snack food has just enough boldness without crossing over into that extreme zone.

Source

Agency: Rethink, New York

Five Star Chicken: death of a salesman

Another outstanding ad from Thailand. The hallmark of any top-notch advertisement is the combination of creative strategy and execution. It takes a lot of smarts to figure out what needs to be said and then the ‘how it needs to be said’. A new ad for Five Star Chicken in Thailand is a mockumentary style 4-minute film which knocks people’s obsession with online ratings. We’ve seen that delivery agents, Uber drivers and such like nudging us to give ‘star ratings’. The attempt is to convey that ‘if it’s truly five-star, it’s gotta be Five Star Chicken. The film is anchored on a bumbling but likeable salesman who sells poor quality products such as pillows, chairs, and cologne only to be given 1-star ratings – all tying up to the brand’s promise, as suggested in the name.

Agency: BBDO

TD: own a piece of it

The business of advertising presents opportunities for creative thinking – not just conjuring up pretty pictures or crafting clever lines. TD offers investors in Canada the ability to invest in Partial Shares. To highlight that without naming the shares one can own, they placed outdoor installations in front of iconic brand outlets with only a portion of the logo visible. Apparently, advertisers cannot legally display other brands’ logos in their ads and this idea cleverly circumvents that restriction too.

Agency: Ogilvy

Thai Life Insurance: unfading love

Most insurance ads anchor a story on fear or guilt. While the category motivations maybe driven by being prepared for the proverbial rainy day, maybe in markets where insurance is an accepted, common habit some other positive stimulus might work. Several insurance brands in Thailand have taken the emotional route to sell insurance, including some real tear jerkers. A new ad from Thai Life Insurance uses ‘Everyone has a story that makes life meaningful‘ as a platform and tells a moving story (inspired by real life incidents) of an elderly lady with Alzheimer’s and what motivates her.

Agency: Ogilvy

DeLonghi: not just a coffee machine

Apparently, in the new US tariff regime, any machine that processes data, gives output, stores information, and runs programs has been exempt from tariffs by being classified as a computer. De’Longhi, a coffee machine brand from Italy, realised that its coffee machines meet the criteria. In a new tongue in cheek campaign, they have re-branded their coffee machines as computers.