By far the most hideous aspect of this year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here is the various idents for Iceland that appear around each ad break. They feature a range of party food that looks so disgusting it could easily become the subject of a Bushtucker Trial.
Firstly, what the hell is a “king prawn spoon”? It looks like a plastic black teaspoon with a thick maggot on it. You can see why they call it party food. It inspires that famous Christmas parlour game known as Bet You Can’t Eat One Without Sicking Up On To The Axminster.
Then there’s some unspecified deep fried thing that could possibly be a witchetty grub in batter. The mini gateaux look like bloodsucking jellyfish and the quiche slices bear a striking resemblance to emu vomit. “Bitesize mini hotdogs”? Kangaroo bollocks in pastry. UPDATE: All the idents can be seen here.
Part of the problem is the lighting, which bathes everything in a flourescent striplight glow. It’s like when you to go a nighclub and they switch the lights on at the end. Everything suddenly looks sweat-covered and hideous.
And why is Kerry Katona still considered a viable brand ambassador? She’s an alcoholic with a history of cocaine abuse who recently spent £19,000 on plastic surgery, for Christ’s sake! Does anyone look at this woman and think: “If that food’s good enough for Kerry Katona, it’s good enough for me!” The fact that she’s flirting with Christopher Biggins adds a whole other horrifying dimension. In one of the idents she seems to lunge in to kiss him full on the mouth but luckily the screen fades to black at the last moment.
And as for the advert featuring Kerry singing with Jason Donovan and Coleen Nolan… there’s just no need, is there?
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You have to admit – they know their demographic. I actually remember Iceland being one of the first to say it wouldn’t use any GM produce – it seemed quite a bold, progressive step at the time. It seems like something Charles Dickens might have created if you go into one today.
Jeeeeez… I hadn’t seen those before. They’re truly grim.
As a high level advertising professional myself – ahem – i would love to bestow some words of wisdom about the importance of understanding core audience mindsets or the brand/agency’s boldness in refusing to bow to the Daily Mail in removing her from the campaign.
But I am, to be honest, astounded. Perhaps i am naive and there are vast swathes of the country who find her ability to juggle motherhood with both alcoholism and plastic surgery thoroughly insprational. But even if that was true, a strong brand needs to have a point of view and position of its own, not simply bow to the view of consumers at the expense of its own values.
If I was brand manager at Iceland, or if i worked at their agency, I’d be strongly recommending shipping ms katona out of the campaign sharpish – I can’t believe she is doing the brand image any favours whatsoever.
Then again, in this time of credit crunching maybe retail brands like Iceland need to grab hold of all the talkability (yes, i just used the work talkability) they can get, even if it’s only from media types like us blathering on about what a disgrace it is…
well, I have to say, we are so inspired by the horrific food that we have decided to have an Iceland party – in the true vain of “it’s so bad it’s fantastic”. will let you know how we get on in January. but we are worried because can’t find THE PRAWN SPOONS – they were to be the centre piece!!!
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