H+K Strategies UK's Blog

Dec
2010

The demise of the Andrex puppy

Happy snowy Thursday everyone.

So back to the wonderful world of advertising, and this week the internet was a’twitter with the news that SHOCK HORROR Andrexwas killing off its puppy with a CGI puppy. Was it a cost-cutting excercise as suggested by the Telegraph? Or a PR stunt? Killing stuff off is a classic advertising technique…see below for my top five ‘killed off ‘in ads.

Our H&K Twitter account @HK_London was even followed by @theandrexpuppy “Ex face off Andrex toilet tissue. Replaced by a computer generated image thingy. Currently unemployed. Will shit for food.” (the swearing comes from the puppy’s mouth, not mine). If Andrex is behind that one, then that’s very very clever, but I imagine it’s just some witty wag in PR/marketing . Does anyone know?

The PR campaign for Andrex and this ad began a few weeks ago, when we learned that Andrex was ‘auditioning for new breeds of dogs’. Auditioning to be in an ad is PR101 , tried and tested, and old school, but add dogs and you have Daily Mail gold. As evidenced by this article.

Anyway, on to the ad itself, which aired last night for the first time. We are treated to a charming tale of a male puppy preparing for a visit from his puppy girlfriend – putting flowers in a vase, baking a cake, running her a bath, and of course replacing the loo roll, where we have the usual Andrex motif of the roll running away. In the meantime the puppy girlfriend arrives at T5, jumps in a black cab and sees the puppy world in London go by. All this to the tune of “Little things that you do”. I absolutely love it. Called “The Little Things” it’s by JWT, and sooo much better than the more recent ads with the real labrador puppy. Enjoy!