You know, New Zealand brand Hell Pizza and their associated advertising agencies continue to amaze me. Yes, yes the whole concept behind the brand is “risky” advertising” and almost offensive advertising to get some media play. Yet, the previous agency, Cinderella, who were the genius’ behind the Hilter billboards, caused a large scale boycott of the pizza chain. You’d think they would learn a lesson.
Instead, Hell got a new agency – Colenso BBDO. Ah um, this ad takes the fucking cake. The spot shows a creepy and decomposing Sir Edmund Hillary who along with Tenzing Norgay were the first to make it to the summit of Mount Everest. Alongside him are deceased actor Heath Ledger and the Queen Mother dancing around to Michael Jackson’s, Thriller. Somewhere, MJ is cheering that he’s still relevant, while the rest of the world is slightly gagging. Really. It’s astounding.
The ad was pulled from across the internet airwaves, but managed to make the rounds just in time for Halloween. CMO for Hell Pizza, Rachael Allison, said the spot was sent to 7000 targeted indiviuals and was never intended for wider release. Girlfriend is lying through her teeth, of course. You know that they all sat in a meeting with BBDO and were like, “let’s do that viral thing. You know? Where we send the ad to a bunch of people and then they send it on and like, everyone will know that we are total shits and are willing to keep pushing on the door of disgusting just to get some print lines? Lets do that.”
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