The Thinkboxes Winner - March 2009

Boursin - Combine Harvester

  Boursin has returned to TV advertising after a 10-year absence, and resurrected its ‘Du pain, du vin, du Boursin’ strapline.

The soft-focus ad features a pair of French lovers frolicking in the countryside, bathed in the golden glow of late summer. They chase each other across a field, before settling in the midst of the tall wheat, among dancing butterflies, for a romantic picnic. It looks to be an idyllic setting, but it is not to last. The camera pans out to reveal a combine harvester bearing down on the pair. The ad finishes simply with the endline ‘Fin’.

The TV campaign for the French soft-cheese brand follows its TV sponsorship of a number of ITV3 shows last year. It is intended to remind people about the Boursin product range and encourage a fresh generation of people to try the brand.

Boursin’s return to TV advertising appears to have reignited consumers’ fondness for the brand. ‘The “Du pain, du vin, du Boursin” strapline remains one of the most recognised in advertising; research indicated that consumers wanted it to stay,’ says the brand’s marketing director, Ian Greengrass.

‘We have been amazed and extremely encouraged by the positive response to Boursin after 10 years off-air. It is the perfect time to remind people about the brand.’

Boursin’s ‘Combine harvester’ ad beat Lynx Bullet’s ‘Pocket pulling power’ campaign and Cravendale’s ‘Slurp’ activity to the Thinkboxes’ top spot for March.

To see the full shortlist and check out the winning entry, go to www.thinkbox.tv/thethinkboxes.

‘We have been amazed and extremely encouraged by the positive response to Boursin after 10 years off-air’

Ian Greengrass
Marketing director
Boursin, Bel Fromageries

Ad info

• Client Ian Greengrass, marketing director, Boursin, Bel Fromageries
• Brief To remind consumers of the Boursin range and position it as suitable for regular, rather than occasional, consumption
• Ad agency RKCR/Y&R
• Creative team Nicola Hawes, Andy Forrest
• Production company Hungry Man, Franco American Films
• Director Steve Hudson

Other ads on the podium

Lynx Bullet - Pocket Pulling Power

Lynx Bullet, the new portable on-the-go format for Lynx Bodyspray, was launched in the UK in January 2009. A global television ad has been produced by Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York and adapted for the UK, and it is accompanied by a UK-led and produced press and outdoor campaign - all focusing on the new bullet-sized product format and the "pocket pulling power" idea. To a backing track of Can't Seem To Make You Mine by The Seeds, the film shows our hero imagining every pretty girl that he sees in her underwear. Having let one or two slip by, he makes his move when he sees a gorgeous brunette shopping in a mini-market and swiftly applys pulling power from his easily-portable mini Lynx. It works, he catches her attention - and when she turns round he's standing there, similarly scantily clad in his zebra pattern briefs and carrying his shoulder bag.

Cravendale - Slurp

In another piece of zany Cravendale animation, created by the Belgian stop-motion animators, Pic Pic and André, seven yokels and their horse are served at a milk bar by the Cravendale cow. Having lifted their glasses from a suitably long tray - long enough, at any rate, to accommodate the "Milk enjoyed for the whole of your life" catchline - they discover when drinking their milk that the "musical" pitch of the slurp they each make is dependent on their size. So, naturally enough, they arrange themselves in order of their height and begin slurping the William Tell Overture. Not a lot of people know that one of this work's sections is known as "The Call to the Dairy Cows" - and the fast bit is far better known as The Lone Ranger theme. The ad underlines that milk matters to Cravendale and it wants to communicate this passion by sharing interesting facts about milk.

Also shortlisted for March 2009

Aero - Skater

Research has shown that recent Aero activity - including its last TV campaign, featuring a semi-naked man in a log cabin talking about the chocolate bar - has been more successful at appealing to women than men. This latest spot, in which a man takes a bite of the Aero bar then goes for a skate through a sea of chocolate-coloured balloons, is intended to help redress that balance. It dovetails with promotional activity designed, again, to appeal to young men, including a competition throughout April to win a Nintendo DSi and skateboarding game provided by Aero - and additional content will be made available through a Facebook group and YouTube. The ad, which sees the specialist skateboarder Bob Burnquist skating through the chocolate balloons in Lake Cunningham Skate Park in San José, California, is directed by renowned skateboarding cinematographer, Ty Evans.

Visa - Bill

For this second outing of the "Life flows better with Visa" campaign, Saatchi & Saatchi enlisted the help of dance performer Bill Shannon, the originator of the Shannon Technique, a form of dance he devised growing up in the breakdance community of Chicago - but unable to support himself without crutches owing to a disability he's had since birth. Beautifully choreographed by Shannon and shot on the streets of Buenos Aires, this film portrays the world's most effortless and graceful shopping trip - courtesy of the Visa card Shannon uses throughout. The aim is to show how Visa is the perfect way to pay for purchases both large and small and to encourage European shoppers to use their Visa cards rather than cash. The music is the lesser-known Northern Soul classic Come on Train by Don Thomas remixed for Saatchi & Saatchi by The Go! Team.