Faced with stubborn kids who refuse to wear sunscreen at the beach,??? ?? what exasperated parent hasn't gazed longingly at the sky, wishing that a seagull might soar overhead and heroically sh*t lotion on their insubordinate children?
That's the premise of an ad campaign that one advertising legend recently called "the most stupid thing I think I've seen in my whole life."
SEE ALSO: Chipotle's touching short film is its first major ad campaign since health scareIn it, skin care brand Nivea conspired with a German ad agency, Jung von Matt/Elbe, to build a seagull -- fashioned from a modified remote control airplane -- with a peculiar digestive tract and then send it swooping over a beach to poop sunblock on grateful, giggling kids in a scene that was clearly staged for the purposes of the commercial.
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Meanwhile, agency employees hid out in nearby dunes, where they claimed to be using a UV camera to identify kids who were most exposed to the sun -- an endeavor they cheerfully refer to as "the hunt."
The whole process is documented by a chipper narrator and an upbeat soundtrack that suggests what these people are doing is somehow within the realm of normal human behavior.
No, they weren't joking. The architects of this inanity were not only completely straight-faced about the societal benefits that could be reaped by a defecating seagull drone, they even decided their work might be worthy of an award.
In judging the campaign for a Cannes Lion prize at the international advertising festival earlier this month, Bartle Bogle Hegarty co-founder John Hegarty didn't hold back.
"This is, without question, at the cutting edge of technology and brand integration," he said sarcastically at a press conference, as reported by Adweek.
"I actually thought the Monty Python team had gotten together and entered it into [Cannes], to see if we would vote for it," he said at another point.
At least someone at the brand seems to have some doubts about the project. When contacted by Adweek, Jung von Matt/Elbe told the magazine that Nivea's public relations department had shut down any PR surrounding the campaign.
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