In the middle of all the commotion about the new role of the advertising agency and how it will have to adapt to the changing market/media/client landscape, I had to laugh when I read today that Campbell Soup is reprising its classic "Wow, I could've had a V8!" tagline—used 25 years ago—in a new campaign that seeks to draw in occasional users of the brand. The first of TV ads, from Y&R, New York, broke Monday and shows a couple winding up their dinner at a restaurant when the waiter returns to pick up the plates. The man returns his plate with a guilty look because it contains the uneaten vegetables. The tag is tweaked by a "Bop!" which is actually a sound effect made when the waiter taps the man on the head, prompting the man to exclaim, "I could've had a V8!" That’s funny, I don’t remember people in the original ads being hit on the head by waiters… But maybe that’s the Y&R contribution that they’ll charge the client an arm and a leg for. I mean otherwise, why don’t they just run the old spots? Come to think of it, you could say the same about Alka-Seltzer, Avis, Volkswagen, Hertz and a lot of other brands when you look at the junk they’re getting from their agencies currently.

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If this wasn't a commercial, I'd have you killed!
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