John West’s New Ad: A Surprise Twist on a Classic

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John West’s “Bear” is 25 years old but it’s still one of the best-loved ads of the century, setting standards for tongue-in-cheek surrealism and convention-busting humour. The ad’s switch from apparently serious nature documentary to ridiculous micro-budget bear fight immediately established a tone for John West’s brand that it’s been able to draw on ever since.

The spirit of “Bear” lives on in 2026, with John West’s new Australian ad executing a similar surreal rug-pull to the famous original. Here the spoof documentary follows a bear mother nudging her cub into the river to catch its first salmon. It offers the chosen fish to its parent… only to gasp in shock as the bear mom unzips her suit to reveal the John West fisherman in a cunning disguise. As the fisherman runs away, salmon in hand, the brand’s tagline “It’s what John West rejects that makes John West the best” appears on screen.

The ad, made with Clemenger BBDO and The Sweetshop, works because it’s a wonderful exercise in humorous brand tone, in surprise, and in the clever use of distinctive brand assets. The John West fisherman is what we call at System1 a Fluent Device – a recurring creative element that drives the narrative across multiple ads. His adventures dramatise and humorise the brand’s core message – that John West will stop at nothing to get hold of the very best fish.

Fluent Devices work because they create a thread of consistency from ad to ad, creating both fluency – quick recognition of a brand – and positive associations. With the addition of the bear storyline, John West is also tapping into memories of that classic earlier viral ad, keeping its brand tone of voice consistent while making something that works for viewers even if they never saw it.

And the other big driver of effectiveness here is surprise. In Ad Of The Week we often focus more on Happiness as the emotional driver of effectiveness, because it matters most and it’s often simpler to achieve. But Surprise is also a response that predicts effectiveness, and a reveal like the fisherman unzipping can create a big wave of surprise that boosts short- and long-term impact for an ad. Especially when the reaction shot of the bear cub is downright hilarious too.

John West’s ad scores strongly on both long-term Star Rating and short-term Spike Rating. It gets 4.7-Stars, which is way higher than the Australian TV average of only 2.4-Stars. And its Spike Rating is driven by exceptional emotional intensity, created by that switching from happiness to surprise. It’s an ad which harks back to a classic while offering something brand new, giving you the perfect blend of consistency and novelty.