Our cock's bigger

'Mr Wan' and his single store, 'Wando's' are the product of two companies, Nando's and The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town. Through their debut, Nando's/Wando's collaboration, came advertising which seemed to defy its very nature, having no reference to brand name or logo, and in fact, advertising somebody else.

Download and view Wandos ad (1.4 MB)
Download and view Nandos ad (1.2 MB)

The Nando's/Wando's/Intrinsic campaign is a double hit, designed to focus on the intrinsics and remind people how great Nando's is. It begins with a 40 second spot where Mr Wan imitates Nando's in his campaign for Wandos... while Nando's marinades its chicken for 24 hours, Wando's does for 23 ½. Nando's butterflies its chicken, and Mr Wan uses a tai chi cut. The restaurant interiors look all but identical, and it's clear that Mr Wan is cashing a forged cheque.

Nando's then issues a response claiming foul play, and follows with an announcement notifying the public of the ways to identify an authentic Nando's chicken meal. It is a clever way to detail the benefits of a product without losing attention and includes a gratuitous cock pun for the amusement of those who haven't caught the bigger picture.

"Nando's briefed us to bring the attention back to the food and get people talking about them again," says Client Service Director, Gavin Levinsohn. "Nando's does have a unique taste, and the fact is that people will say, 'I feel like a burger, or a pizza, or I feel like Nando's'. It's not just chicken, it's in a category of its own, and that's the value we took to be intrinsic."

A walk around any South African mall will reveal a number of imitators who have hopped on the peri peri chicken bandwagon," says Ahmed Tilly, Jupiter's Creative Director. "Our strategy was that an ad for a competitor could reveal the intrinsic truth about Nando's. You can copy everything except the taste. When Wando's says, 'There is only wan', people would say, 'Not so, there is Nando's'. The truth is that nothing tastes like Nando's."

When pushing the envelope overtakes the message being delivered, it must be remembered that the life cycle of shock is short if a concept is hollow. Transgression today is a wry smile tomorrow and passé the day after. "What Jupiter Cape Town is known for, as an agency, is taking the sexiest angle and pushing a brand to its limits, without straying from relevance to product," says Tilly, "There is no point in smoke without fire."

"Nando's meddles with boundaries, and there are high expectations of their advertising," says Levinsohn: "We needed to break out of the clutter, and Wando's is the imitator through who we say, 'You can fake everything about Nando's, but you can't fake the taste'. The fact that it mocks imitative advertising is Nando's' usual hijacking of controversy - irreverent and very 'Nando's'."

Wando's was directed by Jeremy Goodall of Freshwater Films, who created the spot as though his client were indeed, Mr Wan. All the backgrounds were stills, and Wan was inserted later, in keeping with how it would have been done by an authentic, low budget, single-store owner. The music was what Mr Wan had thought sounded Portuguese but was in fact Mexican.

Although Wandos may seem not to have much to do with Nando's, it has a lot to do with the "price of eggs". Through comparison, the campaign returns the value of Nando's to the taste and quality of its food, so that it is the consumer, rather than the advert, who says, "If there is only one, it is Nando's." The fact is that Nando's has been imitated in the past, and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, play on. There has been great hype around the campaign: "Luckily," says Tilly, "Nando's can live up to the hoax." And as for what comes next... that would be counting chickens.