Grey New York launched three new spots promoting Canon’s Pixma printers as part of the “Never Again” campaign the agency launched this spring.
Like their predecessors, the new spots (“Touchdown,” “Eulogy” and “Concert”) show times when not printing leads to disastrous consequences. In “Touchdown,” for example, a mother hands her son her camera when he asks for pics of his recent touchdown to show his friend, telling him to scroll left. It’s not until it’s too late, and her son is scarred for life by images of his mother and father “wrestling” that she realizes her mistake, screaming “Scroll right!” while falling on the floor. Another ad finds a father in the back of a police cruiser following a sequence of events that begins with his cracked screen preventing his e-ticket from being read when attending a concert with his daughter. The third spot shows what happens when a priest’s tablet dies right as he begins to read a eulogy.
“We wanted to think of the most uncomfortable situation someone could be in for their tablet to fail,” Grey New York executive creative director Ari Halper told Adweek. “We figured it’s not that big of a stretch to say that a modern priest would perhaps rely on a tablet for sermon references or, say, George’s eulogy. The clergy also have to maintain a sense of decorum, so we thought that would add another level of humor.”
The challenging aspect to the approach is balancing humor with believability, which the agency manages better with some spots than others. While it’s both funny and believable that a priest might lose the eulogy he’s about to give when the power on his tablet gives out, it’s less believable that a mother would forget that she took X-rated pics with her husband before handing off her digital camera to her son. That idea may make for a humorous and memorable spot, but it’s lack of believability hinders its message as a selling point for Canon’s Pixma printers.
Credits:
Advertiser: Canon USA
Spot Titles: “Eulogy,” “Concert,” “Touchdown”
First Air Date: 8/3/15
Agency: Grey, New York
Chief Creative Officer (Global): Tor Myhren
Chief Creative Officer (New York): Andreas Dahlqvist
Executive Creative Directors: Steve Krauss, Ari Halper
Group Creative Directors: Stu Mair, Anthony DeCarolis
Associate Creative Director: Noel Hamilton
Copywriter: Reagan Ward
Art Director: Ian Liu
Project Manager: Emma Tonetti
Producer: Lauren Tuttman
Partner: Rick Cusato
Senior Vice President, Account Director: Nikki Maizel
Vice President, Account Director: Cristina Fotieo
Account Executive: Genevieve Gray
Assistant Account Executive: Abel Flint
Senior Planner: Steve House
Production Company: Vision, New York
Directors: Michael Andrews, Daniel Mabe
Director of Photography: Jordan Parrott
Editors: Jesus Sepulveda, Adam Talaid, Vision Post @ Grey
Music: Zachary Pollakoff
Sound Design: Dante Desole
Principal Talent: James Murtaugh