Last year, I came across a series of ads for Smooth E Baby Face Foam and I fell in love with them. The brand, a face scrub, chose to tell its story in a remarkably different way from the category. The ads were a series and strategically & creatively top class. The story-telling, episodic format ensured a level of suspense and made you look forward to the next ad in the series. The creative idea of a real-life story made it look less like an ad. But there was mistaking the terrific hard sell of the brand’s virtues. Paradoxically, the style of making it obvious that they are here to sell, made it look less like an ad. The characters didn’t appear to take themselves too seriously and hence made it entertaining.
This year, they have a follow-up campaign in the same episodic, story-telling format. This time around it is not one story but several 45-sec stories. My favourite one featured below. The other great ones are ‘Daddy’, and ‘Oily Face’. The campaign is featured in ‘The Work 2007’.
For me, this represents the best of Thai advertising – rooted to the Thai way of life, packaging a hard-sell story in an entertaining manner and above all integrating advertising & entertainment.
Agency: JEH United, Bangkok
