Ad parody helps LowLow gain traction with consumers

There is no award for "Best Parody" in the Irish advertising industry's biennial ADFX awards, which will be doled out at Dublin's Bord Gáis Energy Theatre next Thursday, but one of the nominees in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category did embrace the genre as a way of establishing "what the brand was not".

A campaign for Kerry Group’s reduced-fat spread and cheese brand LowLow by the agencies Chemistry and Vizeum began its mission to improve market share by poking fun at “bland, insulting or irrelevant” diet ad cliches via a 74-second online parody called “Adland Girl”.

The video, which attracted 2.4 million views within three weeks of its launch in 2013, lampooned ads filled with model- like women who “tuck in” to tiny morsels of salad or do exaggerated hair-flicks as they put half a spoonful of yoghurt near their lips.

A 10-second teaser asking if viewers were "sick of cliches" ran around "high- affinity programmes" such as Girls and Revenge.

In phase two of the campaign, an ad called “LowLow Feel Good” that ran earlier this year sought to avoid a judgmental tone and what Chemistry and Vizeum call “red-dress perfectionism”, in a reference to Kellogg’s advertising for Special K.

If something makes you feel good, the LowLow ad insisted, “have more of it” (especially if it happens to be LowLow).

It turns out parodying competitors’ advertising can be almost as satisfying as, say, real butter.

“Adland Girl” and “LowLow Feel Good” did the trick, according to the entry submitted to ADFX judges, helping the brand beat its targets for cheese sales and swell its market share in the declining reduced-fat spreads category.