MarkLives.com – 18 September 2013
The line between humour and cringe can sometimes be a delicate one – and ideas that look good on the drawing-board can end up falling flat on their metaphorical faces. The Wimpy Breakfast campaign that has been created by DraftFCB is a case in point – it could have been incredibly cringeworthy, because it’s really quite silly. Yet it hits the mark.
The real star is the copy, which is bright and inventive; creating new phrases and terminology that might just make it into the mainstream. The mood of the ad is 100% South African, and the main character is a comedic talent, who plays the opposite of the guy who woke up “on the wrong side of the bed”.
The story of the ad is a series of scenarios featuring an average dude, on various days, at various stages of his day: making his way to work, at work and at leisure. There is a voice-over that runs throughout. Each scene is clearly a different day, as his clothes change each time.
It begins with the voice-over asking, “Who are these people walking around like they own the day?” as the young man is seen smiling ear to ear 
while descending an escalator.
“All tra-la-la in the traffic?” asks the voice-over, and we see the young man is in his car, singing along with the radio.
“Why so jokey, with that spring-in-your-step walk?” asks the voice-over, as we see the shadow of a man doing a cartwheel across a very boring looking slide presentation. Despite his “up” mood, the young man is generally met with glum faces, but this does not deter him.
“All high-fivey!” exclaims the voice-over as the man tries to high-five a stranger in the street. “High-tenny even!” – and we see some bemused laundry operators who are not quite sure what to do.
“All two-gunsy in the office!” as Mr Cheerful Dude fires imaginary six-guns between the cubicles. “All sharp tadada hoezit?” as he greets two old ladies in the elevator.
“Where do you come from?” asks the voice-over, and the scene cuts to our happy dude in a Wimpy, enjoying his breakfast.
The punchline is “Own your day, with the Daymaker Breakfast.”
It’s all quite silly, but endearingly so: the main character has a certain charisma, or perhaps it’s just the great big smile on his face – either way, even though his behaviour would probably be annoying in the real world, the fantasy world of the ad makes him the hero and all other people seem boring. Egg Films has once again produced a great performance-driven spot that consolidates its position as one of our top commercial production companies.
Currently, there seems to be a marketing war between most fast food vendors for a share of the breakfast market, all offering a basic breakfast for around R30. One wonders if there has been a sudden increase in people doing breakfast this way, instead of a hurried bowl of cereal at home, or worse, a chocolate bar from the vending machine.
Wimpy is making its mark with spots like this, which brings fun and an upbeat approach to what is essentially a pretty pedestrian product.
If more people are having a proper breakfast, that’s not a bad thing, I suppose, and dieticians agree that a good breakfast can provide physical and mental energy throughout your day.
It might make you two-gunsy in the office, or high-tenny even.
