Kelloggs Nutrigrain in trousers-down non-shocker
Witness one of those minor television drama moments being played out in front of your eyes: I’m now quite convinced (but need to see the ad again in a real-life TV ad break) that Kelloggs have seen sense and edited their latest Nutrigrain campaign.
Let me explain: the basic premise of the ad sees a doctor examining a patient, somewhat incompetently, only to conclude that the only cure for his ills is to eat something cakey. Like a Nutrigrain bar (are they cakey? Biscuity? I’ve never been sure about them). We laugh along at the realisation that – OH-HO NO!! – he’s actually a BAKER, not a doctor at all. Can you imagine such a world!
Not much has changed in the clipped version, save for one standout line which got my eyebrows well and truly raised every time it came on: at one point, whilst pressing a stethoscope against the patient’s cheek, the doctor quite matter-of-factly asks him to drop his trousers.
That’s right – drop his trousers. In that one moment the gag went from innocent mistaken-identity frippery to dark, twisted, Shipman-esque horror story – “he gave me a cake bar then told me to take off my clothes…” What’s really scary is that the ad seemed to run for a few weeks before anything changed. I haven’t had time to Google-fu the story in detail but no doubt it’s down to pressure from the Daily Mail or News of the World.
adlands 