Donovan Goliath Elf on the Shelf x Kreepy Krauly spoof hits 1m views

26 Sep 2024

The Kreepy Krauly is 50 years old this year, and to celebrate this and the upcoming festival season, this month the brand launched Kreepy Krauly on the Wally, with comedic actor Donovan Goliath.

The Kreepy Krauly is 50 years old this year, and to celebrate this and the upcoming festival season, this month the brand launched Kreepy Krauly on the Wally with Donovan Goliath (Image supplied)

A piece of the branded content story shows Goliath and his real-life daughter, Sophia, as she pleads with him to participate in the popular Elf on the Shelf game in the build-up to the Festive Season.

He persuades her otherwise, convincing her that there is a better, local alternative.

He dubs it Krauly on the Wally.

KK, part of the SA family

“I loved the script because it comprises these beautiful moments of our girl-dad immersing himself in his daughter’s imaginative play,” says Goliath.

“From tea parties with KK - as we affectionately refer to him - to chilling out watching content on the couch, we pushed the humour of the environments in which we saw the pool cleaner, to lean into the metaphor that Kreepy Krauly is a literal part of the South African family,” he adds.

Kreepy Krauly, the festive period and Elf on the Shelf

Hermias Nel, MD Kreepy Krauly explains, “We needed a remarkable commercial to cut through the clutter and to communicate that your Kreepy Krauly is customisable this summer.

“Because our pool cleaner has been a star in family pool games for the past 50 years, we’re including waterproof sticker packs with our products for customers to truly personify their Kreepy protagonists or antagonists.”

Chief creative officer of Retroviral, the agency responsible for the piece of branded content, Mike Sharman explains that the festive period is the most exciting period in South Africa.

“We all look forward to pool parties, Dezemba and we are all in this fun sentiment space.”

But he says the biggest challenge for parents is that they have to think about Santa Claus, global trends such as elf on the shelf and this demands so much creativity when they have nothing left in the tank.

“We have taken these two ideas, one about summertime and the Kreepy Krauly being synonymous with that and parents having to do elf on the shelf,” he explains.

“We thought what if we took Donovan and his daughter and he didn’t have to think about where to put the elf but took one of South Africa’s inventions, the Kreepy Krauly and tied it in with the festive period and elf on the shelf.”

Goliath adds that his favourite scene is when he is braaiing with Kreepy Krauly, who is holding a pair of tongs, cooking wors with him.

“It’s a quintessential South African moment and it signals the build-up to Dezemba, the greatest time on the SA calendar.”