Dulux Anniversary Ad is a Colourful Classic

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Sixty-five years ago a happy accident created a Fluent Device – and made advertising history. Paint brand Dulux were filming an ad in 1961 when an Old English Sheepdog padded onto the set. The director must have sensed magic, as the dog stayed in the ad, and has found a place in British customers’ hearts ever since. The instantly recognisable “Dulux dog” has been so successful it’s become synonymous with the breed itself.

Most Fluent Devices are created by design, not chance, but great creativity often involves a bit of chaos and luck alongside inspiration. So it’s appropriate that Dulux’s 65th anniversary ad, made with Ogilvy UK, takes joy in the chaos of creativity. The ad is a celebration of the dog, the brand, and the colours Dulux brings into its customers’ lives.

The ad dramatises this in a new and thrilling way, with the Dulux pup having a magical power to splash paint when it gives itself a shake. At first these powers are tricky to master, with bedclothes and postmen getting an unwelcome respray. But as the ad progresses and the dog grows (into the current adult Dulux dog) it provides colourful inspiration for its owner’s creative choices.

It’s an ad with so many ingredients for success – a beloved brand mascot, a fresh idea for how to feature it, humour, tenderness and a lot of delightful colour. It’s also brave enough to include human drama, with a surge of sadness on our Test Your Ad Trace as the couple who’ve brought up the pup split up. But the Dulux dog is there to bring colour and joy to its newly single owner and give her a fresh start as the ad ends.

What that adds up to is more than just an anniversary celebration. On Test Your Ad, the new commercial is the most effective Dulux ad ever, scoring the maximum 5.9-Star Rating for long-term effectiveness in a category (Home And Garden) where the average is only 2.4-Stars. It also gets an Exceptional score in short-term Spike Rating and a very strong 93% Brand Fluency.

These are landmark scores for both brand and category, the most effective Home And Garden ad in the last 5 years. It’s evidence that brand mascots and Fluent Devices can be truly evergreen, as long as there’s a desire to keep them fresh by applying creativity and thinking about how to use them in different ways – while keeping the heart of their appeal. While most 65 year olds are thinking about retirement, the Dulux Dog is more effective than it’s ever been.