Boddingtons drops the cow for new campaign

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 11-Feb-02, 16:01

LONDON - Boddingtons has unveiled its latest advertising, which has done away with Graham the cow, and features women "drinking" pints -- without actually showing the beer.

Two television advertisements, part of a £1m marketing campaign, will break on Thursday. The first is called "pillow talk" and shows a woman in bed with a man, asking him to pretend he is a barman and pull her a pint of Boddingtons. At the end of the ad, she drinks the pint in a satisfied way, while he looks on frustrated.

The other ad is "screen kiss", where a redheaded woman plays an actress filming a scene where she has to kiss her co-star. However, she finds him so unattractive she imagines he is a pint of Boddingtons -- then she can't stop snogging him.

The ads are a move back to Boddingtons' famous ads staring Melanie Sykes, which played on her broad Mancunian accent.

The campaign was created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty with Nick Gill as creative director. Media planning and buying is through Starcom Motive.

Karen Willsher, Boddingtons' brand manager, said: "Graham the cow has moved on to pastures new but like our pint, we're keeping ahead and refreshing things all the time."

Boddingtons described the role reversal of the ads as "bang up to date, with cooler, sexier storylines".

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