‘Thanks for the warm-up.’ So goes the wry poster campaign for Channel Four’s coverage of the Paralympics, which get underway in a couple of weeks’ time.
The tone of the TV advertising is different but equally uncompromising, combining images of leading competitors with some startling dramatisations of car accidents and injuries sustained in the line of military service. It’s very Channel Four.
Adding to the build-up from tomorrow evening will be a new ad for Sainsbury’s starring David Beckham, a man whose stock somehow rose even higher over the past fortnight. Getting left out of the GB football team looked like a blessing as we crashed out (inevitably) on penalties in the best English tradition. Arriving by speedboat to help light the Olympic flame looked a much more rewarding assignment.
Sainsbury’s has put a lot of emphasis on its Paralympic sponsorship. Its ad, which The Grocer has seen in advance, features Beckham, Paralympic athletes - and some inspirational scenes of people shopping in slow motion at Sainsbury’s.
It’s probably wishful thinking to imagine that hordes of people will stock up the fridge ahead of a big night in to watch our Paralympic medal prospects in the numbers that roared on Mo Farah and co. But demand for tickets has surged off the back of a wildly successful past couple of weeks (the Spice Girls a regrettable exception) and there’s certainly a rare mood of optimism around the nation. Even Kantar was getting in on it today, issuing its most upbeat assessment of the grocery market in quite a while.
As for Sainsbury’s, it’s clearly desperate to avoid the sort of grief Olympic sponsors Coca-Cola and Cadbury got for daring to sell something other than celery sticks. The supermarket scenes in its ad are set firmly in the fruit and veg aisle, with nary a choc bar, soft drink or bag of crisps in sight.
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