This is the ORIGINAL 30-second TV spot created and produced by Young and Rubicam's Adelaide office for anchor client Chrysler.
AD NDUSTRY NOTE: The reputation of that office, a powerhouse for the US agency in Australia, was built on winning a campaign for a racy new model Valiant sedan that was pitched around the idea of using Sterling Moss. At the pitch, the idea went down well, but the client said "you'll never get him." The agency bowled the client over when Mr Moss walked into the room. Pure adman magic.
This was the early days of Mitsubishi's arrival in Australia which later turned into a complete take-over from US car-maker Chrysler.
Based on three sumo wrestlers, the ad’s cheeky not-so-serious take on things captivated everyone's imagination so much that the phrase "not-so-squeezy" entered the vernacular. No wonder that is went off like a bomb in the predictable Australian truck category blowing it wide open. Years later, a manager of Mercedes-Benz trucks confessed that he couldn't sell a truck after that ad. Obviously an exaggeration, but he remembered so well that everyone wanted the "not-so-squeezy" one.
This total proof of the usually unrealised extraordinary power of, not just advertising, but of the media.
Today, fifty years or so later, that 30 -second thing (and ad, certainly, but no ordinary ad) is still remembered by Australians of that time, It was the basis of every ad that Y&R made for Mitsubishi over the next decade. Those later ads are all on TH-cam, but THIS IS THE ORIGINAL.
I know all this, because it was my idea. Totally. From strategy thru to client presentation and approval. To be honest, I think I was living in Victor Harbour at the time of the making of the spot. And if anyone can tell me the name of the art director, I would love to know. I can picture him, but name?
And as well as a bundle of lovely awards (no royalties in the ad business) Not-So-Squeezy led me into a successful career as an advertising creative both in Australia and later in Europe.
I was the brains behind many other memorable commercials, including intestinal worms (singing worms), haemorrhoids (music to your rear), period pain (what would it be like if men…). I also worked with ACON in Sydney on many “safe sex” campaigns in the awful early days of HIV/Aids.
By chance, I happened to be a student at the University of Adelaide in May 1972 when its newly appointed law lecturer Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan was thrown into the River Torrens, and drowned. Hearing rumours of the involvement of police, Paul wrote the story that was published in the weekly Nation Review that put the spotlight onto members of the police vice squad, contributing to the serious unease the city felt at this shocking event.
Many people and organisations (including the University’s law school) came together in the subsequent campaign that asked “How many more Duncans?”, and resulted just three years later in the Dunstan Government’s world-leading decriminalisation legislation, gender-neutral, with the age of consent set at 17.
This story is told in Tim Reeves’ book, available also as a download here. www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product/the-death-of-dr-duncan/
Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, is an extraordinarily powerful new oratorio commemorating Dr Duncan, his fate and subsequent globally significant events. Conceived and developed by Adelaide's Feast Festival, the work has been produced now in both Adelaide and at the Sydney Opera House.
More details of this impressive and important work can be found opera.org.au/productions/watershed-sydney/
I suspect that it’s my multi-generational German/Lutheran heritage that imbued me with this strong sense of social justice, and with the ability to create a slew of public campaigns and up-beat advertising commercials.
Always up for a chat about communication and business ideas, and perhaps for business proposition, too.
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