Sep 13, 2009

A Campaign With an Edge

From Singapur (Singapore), probably the most clever campaign I have ever seen for a product like Play Doh. And the cutest one, in a "Tim Burton" sort of way.

These ads talk to parents directly, reminding them -at the same time- about the thousand of possible things you can make with the product but, even more important, it also reminds them about how safe it is to play with it.

According to my friend Odra -who is living there and sent me the ads-, the whole campaign appeared in one of those small free magazines that you can pick up at the coffee store (in her case it was at Spinelli's) and it is "the type of magazine that let you know what there is out there to do if you want to be young, crazy and informed of the last tendencies...".

Clearly, the target is young, progressive, open minded parents (my friend being one, she also fall in love with the campaign).

Here, the ads (click to enlarge):

Matches
Playdoh_Matches
Razor
Playdoh_Razor
Pills
Playdoh_Medicine
Knife
Playdoh_Knife

The magazine where she found them is called Navigator and if you are planning to visit Singapur soon, you can also read it online. I don't know the agency behind the campaign but I surely hope they get some recognition!

UPDATE: Hasbro denies the ads were correctly approved (even when they were approved by someone in the company). Read more here!

25 comments:

golublog said...

It's all good fun till the kid eats the play-doh.

Anonymous said...

then no one else can make clever, dangerous looking models.

KissMyBlackAds said...

these are great.

Anonymous said...

nice but smells of scam.

San said...

Lol, I also thought about the eating (specially with the pills) but truth is that Play Doh is non toxic. Of course, as with anything, I guess is safe to eat depending on the amount =))

For the one that thinks is a scam, you can see the ads published in this month's magazine, just follow the link in the article...

Anonymous said...

It's Singapore not Singapur.

Anonymous said...

so is there a problem with playdoh being unsafe / perceived as unsafe in singapore?

why are they trying to emphasize that it is safe?

San said...

It is Singapur in my native language (Spanish) what is in fact very near to how you say it in Malay (Singapura).

Anonymous said...

scam - publish work in some minor publication or low profile channels just to get it out. the magazine it came out is for young adults not parents.

Perai said...

I don't understand - why would this be considered a 'scam'? Who is being 'scammed'? What do the 'scammers' acheive from this? If it was a 'scam' in the traditional sense of the word, it would be an ad campaign produced by a rival company to discourage people from buying Play-doh, and not have their official logo on it. Could someone please enlighten me where the 'scam' element is or what it means to call this a scam?

Jo said...

They say these things are all safe because they are made of play-doh, but some kid could eat the play-doh pills or real pills, and probably be quite ill either way!

San said...

To Perai: we normally call a scam, ads that are made to win prizes but either they have not been to requested by the client or sometimes not even paid by the client (that is why they run in cheap TV hours or cheap magazines).

I doubt this is a scam, though. After some research I found a previous campaign from DDB in Singapur, very similar in design("Le Doh" for "Lego"). See http://www.lemonflip.com/archniv/print-all/print:page,1,835-play-doh-le-doh.html

j said...

i used to eat it when i was little. tastes pretty good actually... :)

Unknown said...

Used to? Heck, I'm eating some right now!

LEon said...

I didnt happen to see this ads in Singapore. Hm... If the kids do make such thing with playdoh, it is already dangerous! LOL

Anonymous said...

Fake, fake, fake, fake and more fake.

Asia is renowned for running fake ads like this simply to win advertising awards. The agency creates them and pays to run them, many times without the client's knowledge.

It's a HUGE problem in the ad industry - as agencies do more fake work to promote themselves than they do for real clients.

Anonymous said...

The days of such ads are over.....at least in the One Show and D&AD....send them to Cannes, so far it's the only famous show that allows scam.

Anonymous said...

Hasbro has announced that the ads were run without their knowledge by an agency that doesn't even work for them. http://tinyurl.com/moe5bj

San said...

Thank you very much for the follow up! This is exactly what I was talking before, half a scam but not totally one, due to the fact that someone in Hasbro approved the ad... ("We also found out that an individual within Hasbro Singapore made the unfortunate decision to approve a one time use of the ads without going through the proper channels.")

Nowadays agencies know that they need the approval from SOMEONE in the company because if not they could be sued...

So, a "scam" with the approval of someone in the company... /:)

david said...

I love it. Safer is better. Brilliant ad campaign.

AgapiStudios said...

safe physically maybe not psychologically ... wow

Anonymous said...

Do what you say,say what you do

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Bocconi

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Conceit is the quicksand of success.

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Goth said...

Great ad campaign. I miss Playdoh. I used to love the factory with the moon and spaghetti shapes.