Adland publisher Åsk Wäppling has posted an old commercial on her site in which she appears. She ended up in the commercial through a strange turn of events ten years ago while working on a new business pitch for Expressen Fredag for which she was charged target audience research. Unfortunately, her agency did not win the account due, apparently, to her “fool” of a creative director.
“I had spent days researching the target group (even though I was just 22, I thought I’d interview the target kids between 16-25 to understand them better) to figure out what would appeal to them/how to talk to them,” Åsk said. “When I presented that and my conclusions and my ideas, he CD self confidently stated that he “knew” what kids liked, saying, ‘I know what the young kids like, I have a VIP card to [name of hip club],’ and proceeded to ignore my advice.”
Oddly, while not winning the account, she ended up in the commercial anyway. Upon her insights being dissed, Åsk said, “I went out and vented my frustrations by playing pinball all night (there is a machine behind me [in the ad]), and a photographer came up and asked to shoot me for some ‘Hip kids reportage’. Turns out the photographer was working for the competing agency, they won the account, and a few weeks later my face was all over MTV.”
Gloating happily, she adds, “I was pretty damn chuffed to end up in the competing agencies winning campaign. It was like really rubbing that guys nose in it.” The commercial can be viewed here. And yes, you have to subscribe to view.
