Ginsters Find the Fun in Farming

Some of the most successful British food and grocery ads of recent years have made a big thing of provenance. We’ve seen plenty of brands take to the countryside and interview the farmers and growers who make their produce. And audiences usually love it – it’s a way to put a human face on packaged goods and make people feel the food they’re buying is a bit more authentic and special.

But there’s no advertising trope so perfect that you can’t be a little cheeky about it too. In their new ad, Ginsters gently take the mickey out of the “farm interview” subgenre of ads with a profile of Merryn, a farmer who grows potatoes for Ginsters Cornish Pasties. The ad starts off quite serious, with Merryn talking about her love for her work. But soon she’s dressing as a scarecrow, pulling a plough and putting baby monitors in rows of onions.

The entertaining ad, from TBWA\London, successfully walks a tricky line – it’s a genuine celebration of the stuff that goes into a Ginsters Pasty, but at the same time stays dead on target for Ginsters’ brand image and values: down-to-earth, cheerful and not afraid of a bit of self-mockery. The ad is part of a new campaign, “Taste The Effort”, which has a similarly delicate brief – to nudge Ginsters positioning away from its reputation as a grab-and-go late-night snack and inform the public of the brand’s product quality while keeping an authentic tone of voice.

So it’s good news for the brand that “Taste The Effort” is a hit with viewers, landing a 4.0-Star score on Test Your Ad and a similarly strong Brand Fluency rating. Those are the most important metrics for an ad designed to move and build up brand image – the ad entertains viewers but it’s also firmly linked with the brand, so it’s not just Merryn’s jokes that are working, it’s the whole branded message.

Humour and authenticity can be a risky mix – the former can easily undermine the latter and leave audiences confused about how seriously to take product claims. But get it right and you get a commercial that really can make its pasty and eat it.