by KATE HUNTER
Well. This is a bit of fun. You know, if you’re nine. It’s the new sale ad for British Department store Harvey Nichols.
Yes, the sale is so exciting you might well wee in your very tight jeans. Lucky you got them so cheap!
In defense of the people who created the ad, it is hard to promote sales– hell, there’s rarely much to say except, ‘Same Stuff, Lower Prices,’ so you need to be up the ante. Lord knows what Harrods are up to! Most importantly, if you’re a creative person, you need to get the hell off sale ads. This is my guess as to how it went down in the creative department:
Creative Director: Right. You kids are doing the Summer sale ad.
Art Director: Fuck.
Writer: What’s on sale?
Creative Director: Oh, you know, jeans, tops, vases, usual shit. But Harvey Nics posh shit.
Art Director: How big is the budget?
Creative Director: Forget it. You’re not shooting in Marrakesh.
Art Director: Bollocks. Can I have a famous model?
Creative Director: What you do of a Friday night is your business. But for this ad you’ve got one girl in a studio. Mildly famous photographer – and that’s it. We’re going to be doing it all again for the Winter sale.
Writer: Groan.
Creative Director: Stop your whining. This could be your big break. Do something that gets free press, has the feminist bloggers going nuts, wins a couple of gongs and you might find yourselves shooting the next Lynx ad in Amsterdam.
Creative director leaves.
Art Director: Man, that pisses me off.
Writer: Let me write that down ….
Kate Hunter is an advertising copywriter with over 20 years experience and one Gruen Transfer appearance to her name. Kate is also the author of the Mosquito Advertising series of novels – The Parfizz Pitch, The Blade Brief and The Crunch Campaign, which see a bunch of Australian kids start their own advertising agency. You can buy them here. The stories surrounding ads are often more interesting than the ads themselves and as soon as Kate thinks she’s seen it all, she sees something more dazzling or more dire than has ever been done before.
What do you think of the ad?
Top Comments
Kate you never ever fail to crack me up! Love your work.
As for the ad, I have no words!
It's kind of gross but I kind of like it! At least it's original, and how many people have been known to pee their pants when they're excited...?