We don’t really know what to think about the new Tropika activation video. It must have taken an insane amount of co-ordination to get this right, and the views on the video have certainly been ticking up. For those reasons alone it’s commendable, but it’s very clearly an idea that was taken from the TNT Dramatic Event on a Quiet Square.
Then again – is it just the ignition point that is taken from the Add Drama video? I.e. the table standing with the drink? The actual “content” of the flashmob is fairly unique and speaks well to the “Jamaican essence” that Tropika wants to communicate.
Flash mob style activations and experiential events have recently become a dime-a-dozen and every single brand is now doing it (watch this great one from Laerskool Horison…).
What do you think? Is this a good local adaptation of an idea, or simply a bad rip?
Credits:
Agency. 7Dffrnt Knds of Smke
Neil Clarence. Creative Director
Ryan Gandalf van Jaarsveld. Strategic Director
Art Direction. Jonathan Corns
Copywriter. Andy Bam
Production. Spiral Productions
Josh Linberg. Director
Olga Grigorova. Producer
28 Comments
Im so sick of flash mobs. And this one is just plain embarrassing. I would hate to have my name on that credit list..
TNT did it better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzoFXZ5pT1w
How the fcuk do you justify stealing someone else’s idea and get away with it?! South African creatives stop embarrassing yourselves!
This is the worst thing I’ve seen in a looooooong time…Whoever are responsible for this ripoff should be fired! Absolutely disgusting!
How to blow a big budget badly.
The sequence of events are too disjointed, if you missed the 1st minute of it you would be sitting there wondering about the whole production, which explains the WTF looks on the crowds faces.
love it
this is so bad i want to punch a baby
Well done, this is terrible.
1. They’re promoting a “summery vibe” in Joburg. In winter. At night.
2. Target audience: 79% tourists, 21% local yuppies sipping on R60 glasses of bad house wine.
Come on guys, Jamaican me crazy.
The same people (Qwa Qwa, Somecopywriter, mallix) frequently pop up out of nowhere with the same spiteful comments. What have you guys produced? I take it nothing which is why you’re all so resentful. Why don’t you put up some of your work to be judged?
come on dudes, this is just advertising, no need to get so aggressive and nasty about it. we all know it’s a rip, let it be now.
@Here we go again: unfortunately this is the internet and anonymous comments are a reality.
However: Let’s keep the discussion to the work and not get into a personal flamewar, or we’ll have to close the comments board.
I would like to encourage everyone to say why this is a poor activation (if you hate it) or you feel that it’s great, then what makes it stand out from other flashmobs?
Someone said this the other day, “Maybe they’re not haters; maybe what you made really is a bunch of toss.”
Here we go again…listen bru you can’t seriously defend this lump of cr@p?
Wow, not even ‘borrowing’ from the TNT dramatic event, just copy & paste. Plus @vleisboeker has it hundred percent correct – why waste your money here?
Not impressed.
Shew could’ve tried to make it a little less like a direct copy – but just put in the entry video that the sound waves operate on a specific frequency that is shown to make people feel warmer and it’s a definite Cannes win for sure.
If you’re going to steal an idea then at least do it better. You’ve got a Cannes winner as a template. How could you possible screw it up?
This is what happens when someone firmly believes in that old chestnut “There’s no such thing as a bad idea”.
I think people need to see the difference between being a hater and having standards. Saying something is rad doesn’t make you an ass-kisser or associated with the ad, and saying something is kak doesn’t make you a hater. They’re opinions that sit at the opposite side of the spectrum. Some people watch Twilight and listen to Bieber.
That said, people become dicks through their keyboards.
We all need to take the comments section with a pinch of salt. Except the guys that made this ad. You need to take it off the net and away from human eyes. Animals will probably hate it too but they don’t have thumbs and will struggle to type their views.
I think it’s outrageous, absolutely outrageous, that some Belgian agency could rip off an activation as good as this one! The internet does not forget!
My lunch went down at 13:23 today and came back up at 17:45. Thanks for letting me do a trick!
(We now have 20 comments, I think I sense a case study)
is this a joke? the people in the credits dont even sound real.
After reading some of the comments, I think I’m more inclined to not bash the ad because it was so similar to TNT. The concept really isn’t new, and it wasn’t new when TNT did it. They just executed it really well.
If you take the brand (Jamaica, reggae, etc) into consideration you can’t fault this for being off-brand. I think the reason we (creative community) don’t like it is because it’s a little bit naff. The dancers, Melrose Arch Piazza… Plus it’s not really that well crafted or executed and just has waaaay too much going on.
Still, I think commendable for the amount of co-ordination it took, and the 50k views it has so far.
You guys might remember the activation for Walking Dead that everyone ripped in to?
Well that video got 1 million views and shut-up the haters pretty quickly: http://10and5.com/2012/02/10/a-zombie-at-the-movies-for-the-walking-dead-season-2/
It got a million hits because it was cleverly seeded onto brazilian blogs by a viral company.
Thanks Hits – do you have any backup info on that?
A sneezing Panda has over 140 million hits.
If a million people see your ad and virtually every comment is highlighting how unbelievably shit it is, then it’s shit and you’ve failed your client. Toss that “Any PR is good PR” kak out of the window.
It cannot be unseen.
I’ve solved the mystery as to how it’s gotten so many views. It just came up as one of those annoying Youtube ads that play before you can watch what you really want to watch.
Lame, ripping off TNT. So sad when creatives can’t come up with their own ideas.