ADWATCH: Goodbye to the ambassador, hello apologetic hostess - Ferrero Rocher’s ads were so bad they were a joke, but will the new ads raise profile?

Ferrero Rocher has finally abandoned its excruciating ’ambassador’s

reception’ advertising, and its new campaign, through Banks Hoggins

O’Shea FCB, has entered Adwatch at number 13 with 60% recall.

The new ad features a group of friends at a dinner party, where the

hostess does her utmost to prevent her guests from getting their hands

on her Ferrero Rocher.

Each time her husband asks for ’those special chocolates’ she comes back

from the kitchen with cognac, then the coffee, and finally claims she’s

forgotten to buy them. After a disapproving look from hubbie, she goes

to get them.

As she watches her guests devour the chocolates, she desperately blurts

out, ’Don’t eat them all,’ and then apologises for her outburst. The

campaign introduces the strapline ’Give Ferrero Rocher ... grudgingly’

which replaces ’A sign of good taste’ from the former ads.

John Crowther, account planner at Banks Hoggins, says: ’The ambassador

ads did a good job six years ago in getting the brand noticed, but

ultimately they let it down. They presented it as pretentious, and

people were laughing at the brand. We wanted to recapture what the brand

is about - simply that they’re special chocolates, and it’s hard to give

them to someone else.’

Crowther anticipates that it will be easy to keep the new theme running

for several years, but emphasises that it is not going to become a soap

opera, built around the same characters. The pounds 2.5m campaign was

launched at the end of October, to coincide with the pre-Christmas sales

period.

So it’s farewell to the ambassador advertisements, with their bad

dubbing and cheesy music. But the ads, which were created by Ferrero’s

in-house agency Publiregia and ran for six years, were so bad they were

a good joke. While the new ad has a more modern feel to it, and no music

whatsoever, it may be some time before people stop getting the urge to

adopt a French accent and declare: ’Monsieur, with this Rocher you’re

really spoiling us.’

To see the Ferrero Rocher ad visit www.marketing.haynet.com

This article was first published on Marketing