Reality TV infiltrates advertising

Using the voyeuristic style made popular by reality TV shows like Big Brother and Survivor, the new campaign for SA's top selling Scotch, Bell's Extra Special Old Scotch whisky, hits a raw nerve by capturing real people's special moments.

Brainchild of King James advertising agency, the campaign captures "simple human experience on video in its raw, unpolished and unrehearsed form".

The result, says Creative Director Alistair King, is "genuine emotion and a campaign that brings a much-needed "honesty" back into advertising".

"We believe it is SA's first "reality advertising" campaign. There are no scripts, no actors, no contrived situations to demonstrate the product. We have captured real events in real people's lives to share with the world."

He says the new Bell's campaign is a celebration of all the good things, all the good emotions and all the good experiences that happen to people.

"In a world that is so often filled with bad news, the campaign is a reminder of how rich and satisfying human experience is. It is a celebration of "extra special times".

Dries Van der Sandt, Bell's Marketing Manager says "The campaign shows real extra special moments in life in a most sincere and realistic way.

"It has none of the grandiose production values or the expensive filming techniques that are often used to seduce the viewer and are typical of advertising today.

"The brand is all about celebrating those extra special moments in life and the best way to illustrate this is to highlight these times in ordinary people's everyday lives."

The people used in the advertising campaign were regular, everyday people about to experience an extra special moment in their lives who were identified by members of the Bell's team.

The advertising team simply recorded the special moment, often without the knowledge of those participating.

The first advert to break captured Gary Fisher – a father of a newborn son – and three of his good friends who surprised him by visiting the hospital after he emerged from the theatre straight after the birth of his 3rd son.

The next is of Johan de Bruijn as he logs onto the website to get his final year chartered financial accountancy (CFA) results. It has taken 5 years of his life to get to this stage and viewers share his nervousness and joy.

The third in the series shows a surprise 36th birthday party organised for Charles Champion.

Flighting of the new campaign will be across M-Net, E-TV and SABC 2 & 3.