Mojo throws Speights Traverse cast to the lions
February 10 2010, 10:58 am | | 33 Comments
Don’t touch the TV: disaster strikes in this spot for Speights Traverse via Publicis Mojo Auckland.
Don’t touch the TV: disaster strikes in this spot for Speights Traverse via Publicis Mojo Auckland.
33 Comments
Having this on here is going to be like putting a Christian in the middle of the colosseum. I really don’t get it. I just don’t get it. Am I stupid, is my girlfriend stupid? I just don’t get it. Please someone explain it to me.
um. what does it mean? should i drink beer? why did that guy change the tv channel. were they all drinking that beer? who put the acid in their pints?
I’m suddenly feeling very stupid. I really really really (really) don’t get this ad… someone please explain it?? Please?
geez, that’s very relevant to the old pride of the south brand. Bizarre
Speights Traverse TVC Explained:
3 metro mates are sitting in a pub on Ponsonby Rd drinking their favourite South Island Beer (made for Aucklanders), pretending to be manly. A TV programme is running in the background (A metaphor for the way Aucklanders have survived the harsh, darwinian kiwi landscape despite their 2 inch heeled trendy cowboy boots). An unsuspecting metro man can’t watch his life story retold again so changes the channel. This is where the product reference comes in. The pub and all of its metro men traverse space and time and find themselves once again in the harsh darwnian landscape. They do what comes naturally and delicately sprint (in their 2 inch heeled trendy cowboy boots) away from the lion (metaphor for the real southern man) and scramble up a tree (metaphor for shoebox styled apartment block of the late 90s early 00s Auckland landscape). The 3 are evicted form the tree (apartment) and sacrificed to the lion (southern man) as payment for more 2 inch heeled trendy cowboy boots (see follow up tvc). Almost documentary like really – David Attenborough, eat your heart out. As a true blue Aucklander it made me cry a little. Bravo.
Copywriter: Alan Smithee
Art Director: Alan Smithee
Creative Director: Alan Smithee
Production Company: Alan Smithee
Now, what was all that about a yellow chocolate bar?
It made a great 65…
Who is Alan Smithee?
2.32 thanks for the explanation.
Unfortunately if the average consumer doesn’t get it within 30 seconds (or less), it is pointless.
If you had instead typed that into a search engine you would have got to here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee
Alan Smithee = BEST COMMENT EVER
Short version: Alan Smithee is an anagram for “the alias men” and is used by writers, directors… basically anyone involved in a stinker of a Hollywood movie when they no longer want to be associated with the project but someone’s name needs to go in the credits.
That comment is quite possibly funnier than the ad itself.
I can’t figure out if 2:32 is taking the piss or not.
But I might have just got it…
Are the Lions the ‘pride’ of the South…
Yes? No?
THats the best I’ve got but I will keep thinking.
Made watching the ad worthwhile anyway just to learn about Allan Smithee.
Al Smithee = Smithy ?
I like the ad, no one gets it first time.
I like that.
It’s low carb, thats why the tree branch breaks.
The guys who ran to the tree were too big.
Should’ve thrown in a cougar.
Or it could be something about how if they had all been drinking a low carb beer (such as Speights Traverse) they would all weigh a bit less and the branch wouldn’t have broken?
quite simply the greatest arse gravy flavoured shit sandwich the multiple CD’s at Mojo (they don’t actually have a creative department since they sacked them all – can’t tell can ya!) have yet delivered. Are our three podgy heroes low carb beer drinkers? if so how come they’re heavy enough to break the branch? Is anyone in this ad actually drinking the product & if our heroes are, how come they get fed to the lions? Is this ad telling us that this beer is for pussies? Does the angry Lion represent the furious client trying to exterminate the crapola that Speights embarked upon after they walked away from mateship to tie the brand to bootcamps for limp city boys and comedy animals gags. Someone feed these guys to the lions.
couldn’t have put it better myself “disaster strikes in this spot for Speights Traverse via Publicis Mojo Auckland.” was that seriously in the press release?
perhaps the ‘pride of the south’ is the pride of lions – the spirit of the brand in furious rage?
This is the worst ad I have seen in recent times. Clearly, whatever the idea was is unrecognisable now. What’s the point? Does it make people want to drink this beer? Allan Smithee’s the world over would be ashamed.
Could someone at Mojo please post the explanation to the entire country please.
10:06 AM – Please god, don’t tell me that’s the idea.
Now we’re seeing what the Mojo creatives can really do without all those stars hogging the limelight.
where’s the mojo?
Are the three non-New Zealanders drinking Traverse? If so, shouldn’t they have been able to get away? If not, who in the ad is actually drinking it? Who are the goodies if the three louts – who are seemingly presented as protagonists – are the baddies? Is the lion the goody? Is the lion “Traverse”? Why is it called “Traverse”? Why is it in Africa? What publican in his or her right mind would allow a wildlife doco to be screened in their establishment when there are several perfectly good channels screening professional sport?
The initial viewing left me baffled; second and third goes I fared no better. So many questions, but when I close my eyes to try and answer them all I see instead is a gigantic Lernaean Hydra, screaming, its seven heads all pulling in opposing directions.
On the plus side though, at least Sloth from The Goonies is still able to get work.
Dear Concerned,
What concerns me also is the fact that they put that ad on this here blog.
It tells me that the boys from Mojo think they’ve done a pretty god job.
Hmm.
face it. if the non traverse drinkers had been proper ‘fatties’, and the actual benefit of the product (low carb beer) was spelled out a bit more as the end gag it actually be pretty good. I bet they were real fatties in the storyboard. client would have freaked about what it said about all their other non low carb brands, backed off real fatties, and now everyone’s confused.
Paul could be right. But even if his is, it is still a very piss poor gag and ad.
You all seem to think it is shit but Bestads and Shots disagree with you
1:26, mate, that could actually be right at the heart of the problem.
Lions climb trees too, so I’m not sure why they were congratulating themselves.
And I sir, disagree with Shots and Bestads. Bless our fine democratic country and the constitutional right to free speech.
It feels to me like at the eleventh hours things were looking grim so the studio manager stepped up and put in his five cents, thank goodness.