ADWATCH: Fruit Shoot plays up unexpected maturity of its drinkers

Robinsons Fruit Shoot continues to show kids reacting to situations in an unusually mature way in the fourth execution in its 'New thinking, new drinking' campaign, which enters this week's Adwatch at number 16, with 30% recall.

The latest ad from HHCL/Red Cell, entitled 'Cricket', features a group of children playing the game on a wasteland in the inner city.

One is organising where everyone fields, while a nervous boy stands at the crease ready to bat. As they play, the boy manages to hit the ball high, but the child who had been organising them all catches it.

Everyone cheers - but the boy at the crease protests as others try to grab the bat to take their go in front of the stumps. The boy who caught the ball, feeling a little pity for his pal, says: "Sorry, I didn't catch it, have another go," and they play on. The ad ends with the strapline 'Robinsons Fruit Shoot - New thinking, new drinking'.

The three previous ads in the series have followed a similar theme of kids doing things they wouldn't usually be expected to. Another execution, called 'Tennis', features two girls playing, then arguing over whether a ball was in or out. After several rounds of heated argument, one turns to the other and says: "OK, your point," and takes a drink of Fruit Shoot.

Giselle Okin, planning partner at HHCL/Red Cell, says: "Britvic has always accessed kids through mums. We wanted to invent and build a brand that talked straight to kids, but where mums liked the grown-up advertising. We always wanted to talk to kids in a grown-up way."

According to Okin, the advertising play to Fruit Shoot's strong association with sport. Indeed, the brand, which launched in 2000, won a commendation at The Marketing Society 2002 Awards for brand development after becoming the first children's drink to link with sports through its packaging - the bottle has a resealable lid, making it perfect for kids on the move - and its advertising. Fruit Shoot grew its sales to £30.6m in 2002.

One more ad in the series, called 'Trampoline', is still to come. Media for the work has been handled by MindShare.

This article was first published on Marketing