TV Advertisment Evaluation

The brief that was given to us was that Unilever wanted one of their products rebranded so that it would appeal to a different audience than it did already. The product that we chose to rebrand was Colman's Mustard, but at first we were going to rebrand Bovril. We changed from Bovril to Colman's because the idea we were going to use for Bovril made the idea of Bovril the butt of the joke, rather than the joke being solely about the situation and NOT the product. We swiftly chose to do Colman's Mustard but with a different idea to one we had in the final product. At first, it was about a very trendy young man walking into the cafeteria at college and he stuns the whole room with his yellow attire, he then would go on to further impress the room with his mighty jar of Colman's and spread it onto a sandwich that he had with him. This idea turned out to have many logistical problems so we changed our idea into one where; a man in an office has a very plain sandwich and is fed up because of it. After we see this, a 'mustard goblin' (Bruce in a yellow hooded poncho) comes up from behind and beneath the table. The goblin then squirts squeezy mustard all over the sandwich then disappears under the table. After this the man has a bite of the sandwich and has a crazy reaction to it and has a surge of confidence, he then gets up from his desk and whisks away a female office worker.
We targeted our product at young workers, the mustard that they are buying will bring some kind of excitement to their lives.
The feedback from the people who saw the advert was quite good, they all enjoyed the advert and thought that it was funny and that they liked the Mustard Man character. But the problem with the feedback was that a lot of the people said that they would not buy the product after watching it. From a creative point of view it worked very well, but from a business point of view, it didn't work so well.
I think that the advert stayed appropriate to the audience. Though the idea of the woman being whisked away from the man is a very traditional view and is one that isn't well recieved by myself, but it was just a rounded ending to the advert so we used it anyway. Also the excess amount of mustard the was squirted onto the sandwich during the advert could be seen as inappropriate just because of the sheer unhealthy amount that was put onto it, though I think that because the amount that it used it so crass that it would be seen as just funny rather than literal.
I liked some of the aesthetic qualities, especially the contra zoom shot of the mustard bottle at the end. But I think overall we could and should have used more close-up shots.
Unfortuneatly I agree with the audience that said that they wouldn't buy the product after watching the advert, though I think maybe it would have been different if we had more close up shots, letting the audience more involved.
Though saying that I do think that the clarity of the message we were trying to get across was effective on a creative stand-point, it's just a shame that we didn't have an idea that showed off the product rather than the characters, more.

From the BCAP code of advertising, under the rules for food advertising it says:
"13.3 Advertisements must not condone or encourage excessive consumption of any food."
Unfortunately I don't think we complied under that rule because of the scene showing the maustard man squirting an 'excessive' amount of mustard. Because of this I think the professionalism of the advert was lowered.


Overall I feel that our effort turned out much better than the original idea, our storyboards were all good but what adding in during the actual filming and during the editing process really did help the quality of the advert.
If I were the do the advert again I would use more close ups, different more dramatic camera angles and give Bruce a better costume for the mustard man. Also I would show that whilst the mustard man is squirting mustard onto the bread, that he is not getting everything he squirted onto the bread showing that the actual food being eating isn't excessively over regulation.
I am happy with the advert.