Essay 1114

AdAge.com reports on the Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards (click on the essay title above for more, including links to view spots)…

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Best of Show: Energizer’s ‘Beard’

But Grupo Galleagos Had to Fight to Make It

By Laurel Wentz

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) – “Beard,” the Grupo Gallegos-produced TV spot for energizer that won the Hispanic Creative Advertising Award for Best of Show, almost didn’t get made.

Back burnered
Energizer liked it, but the idea went on the back burner while the company promoted lithium batteries instead. Grupo Gallegos stubbornly went out and shot the spot anyway, Energizer loved it and, thanks to the agency’s perseverance in bringing a good idea back to life, “Beard” ended up a winner.

The commercial chronicles the life of a clean-shaven man whose beard grows in the blink of an eye, forcing him to shave constantly with his Energizer-powered razor. The commercial is cleverly shot so that he grows a heavy beard in the instant it takes him to sneeze at the office, do a sit-up at the gym and have the photo on his driver’s license examined by a cop, all during his deadpan narration of why this is such a problem and the importance of appearance.

Hispanic insight?
“Beard” highlights a point debated during the contest judging: Must winning work contain a Hispanic insight, or is it enough to have a good idea that works well with Hispanics but would likely appeal to others as well?

“We don’t force Hispanic insights where they’re not necessary,” principal John Gallegos says. “Hispanics want batteries to last longer [too]. They don’t do anything different with batteries.”