Paddy Power: Save Our Shirt by VCCP
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As the football season kicks off this weekend, Paddy Power is ploughing on with its 'unsponsorship' stunt, with the release of a funny ad that calls up rivals for treating football shirts like billboards.
Last month, Paddy Power set tongues wagging when it revealed its bold new design for Huddersfield Town’s kit. Blazoned across like a Hen Do sash, the distinctive shirt left no shadow of a doubt as to who was sponsoring the Championship team.
After it revealed the kit, it left the public stewing over the meaning behind its actions, before announcing it was a hoax. Rather, it was doing quite the opposite; it was ‘unsponsoring’ the team and removing the logo entirely.
To celebrate it's unsponsorship of Huddersfield Town, Motherwell, Newport County, Southend United and Macclesfield Town, Paddy Power and VCCP have released a satirical spot to celebrate its unbranding stunt.
The spot opens with a football fan throwing on a fresh football top. As he stared at his reflection in the mirror, he notices the ‘Grumpy Pigeon’ logo stamped on the front, and his deflated face says it all. In another scene, a football fan sits at a bus stop, making eyes at the women sat next to him. As their eyes flirt she looks down and notices the top is sponsored by ‘LittleBluePill’ and the sexual tension bursts like a deflated balloon, as she averts her eyes awkwardly.
The film continues to show scenes of various football fans working to cover up their audacious sponsorship logos. In one scene, a typical football hooligan fight looks set to start between one team sponsored by ‘Guitar Airway’ and another by ‘Mr Softy.’ As the softies square up, the opposing side burst into laughter pointing at their embarrassing shirt.
It ends with a voiceover saying “wouldn’t it be great if your footie shirt looked less like a billboard? That’s why Paddy Power have launched ‘Save Our Shirt’ where every team we sponsor, we’re unsponsoring and they won’t have our logo at all."
Credits
VCCP
Executive Creative Director, VCCP Blue - Mark Orbine
Creative Directors – Kevin Masters / Christine Turner
Creatives - Chris Willis / Paul Kocur
TV Producer – Simon Plant
Planning Director - Christine Asbury
Planner - Max Macbeath
Head of Account Management, VCCP Blue - Philip Higham
Account Director - Sam Daniels
PADDY POWER
Michelle Spillane - Marketing Director
David Sandall - Head of Brand
Emer McCarthy - Head of Brand
Lee Price - Head of PR
Will Gunton - Marketing Manager
Dan Oates - Brand Manager
PRODUCTION
Production Company – Academy
Director – Peter Cattaneo
Producer – Mark Whittow-Williams
Editor – Nik Hindson @ The Assembly Rooms
Post Production Flame – Darren Nicholson @ Framestore
Post Production Colourist – Steffan Perry
Post Production Producer - Emma Cook
Sound Design – Parv Thind @ Wave
Lighting Cameraman – Jim Jolliffe
Music - “I Love My Shirt by Donovan” ℅ Radford Music
MEDIA Agency: Mediacom
OCTAGON
Head of UK: Joel Seymour-Hyde
Planning Director: Henry Nash
Creative Director: Josh Green
Creatives: Joe Stuart, Cos Georgiou, Charlie Warcup, Joe Goicoechea
