Ideas We Love: Pun & Games
Issue 32: More than just a Lidl bit of wordplay. A celebration of pun-led planning
Hi there, how are you?
One of the first idea-generation techniques you learn in agency life is to come up with a name and then work backwards. Quite often, that name will be pun-based - a clever, or not so clever piece of wordplay revolving around the product or brand in question.
Got a name, got an idea.
This week a new campaign from Supermarket Lidl featuring star of stage and screen Martine McCuthcheon seems to have captured the imagination of ‘ad-twitter’. The ad revolves around a play on the supermarket’s name and a cover of Gina G’s Ooh Ahh…Just a Little Bit, which won the Eurovision song contest in 1996. A great example of the name then execution approach to creative thinking (one would assume)
Why does wordplay work so well? Much like the way ideas which lean into reconciling opposing forces provide an outsized impact (just like we referenced in IWL#29) puns work because ‘they activate two opposing frames in our mind to create salience’ - or at least that’s what some of the armchair scientists on Reddit tell us.
With Martine’s music ringing in our ears, we thought it might be fun (or pun) to look at some of the ads and ideas we love which have wordplay at their heart!
Have a Break by Kitkat 🍫
Here wordplay binds the product to the consumption occassion.
Not only that, but ‘having a break’ has provided Kitkat with a brilliant ‘long-idea’ from which they’ve created many many adverts but it’s also become a firm part of culture, used by a generation of people in the UK in every day conversation.
Salt & Lineker 🧂🥔
Wordplay has long been a driver of NPD across CPG.
PepsiCo snack brand Walkers leveraged their association with footballer Gary Lineker in a special promotion. It also gave them the chance to re-stage one of the most enduring images from Matt and Tom’s childhood - Gazza crying.
Mark and Spencer 👯♂️
The modern version of Salt and Lineker.
Here High Street Retailer Marks & Spencer partner with reality royalty Mark Wright and Spencer Matthews, positioning the duo as the new ambassadors of their menswear line up.
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Compare the Meerkat 🐒
The lowest of low interest categories not only used a pun, but wrapped it around what would go on to be one of adlands greatest character creations in Alexandr Orlov; Compare the Market’s very own Meerkat.
A character that was born out of a frustration the clients found with inflationary prices for generic insurance comparison search terms on Google.
So they, together with VCCP created something else people could search for instead.
Legend has it VCCP retain the rights to the character and still get seriously paid each time he comes out to play.
Lovely stuff.
FCUKing fashion (and supply chain shortages) 👕🍗
Ad-lander turned astronaut Trevor Beattie, during a visit to high-street fashion house French Connection’s offices spotted the abbreviation ‘FCHK to ‘FCUK’ on an internal memo; which stood for French Connection Hong Kong to French Connection U.K.
This inspired Beattie to propose the now-iconic ‘FCUK’. Kerching 💸
In the spring of 1997, Beattie and French Connection launched a bold and provocative ad featuring the slogan ‘fcuk fashion’ that made waves, capturing public attention and cemented its place as one of the most memorable moments in high-street fashion history - with some wordplay making its way across t-shirts up and down the country.
No doubt the inspiration for this apology from KFC when they ran out of C…
Wordplay to Pictionary
Clever mash-ups don’t just have to come in written form; they can be visual as well.
Some of our favorite art direction comes from times brands have got “punny” in a visual sense and woven their products, branding and iconography into seemingly unrelated items or scenes to help make their point.
Like this all-timer from Volkswagen Polo that turned their cars into shields, to demonstrate their toughness.
Or the C in KFC bringing the fire to the drag-race to signal how hot ‘n’ spicy their chicken is.
Or IKEA subtly transforming their bedding range into faux sleeping pills and anti-aging cream to convey how seriously you (and they) take people’s sleep.
Wordplay that interplays with the context it’s experienced in
As practitioners whose expertise starts from the media plan and spreads outwards, we can’t help but love when the medium a message is experienced in becomes part of the fun.
The Economist being masters of this interplay between message and medium; that we’ll leave you with some lovely examples of to finish up this week’s post.
Creating nods to their readers in high places…
Switching lights on amongst readers and potential readers…
Or rallying readers to help change things for the better…
Until next time
We hope you’ve had pun reading this, we really do. As always, please share with your friends, colleagues, neighbours and loved ones. Even better, let us know what you think.
Cheerio
Matt & Tom