System1 & Advertising Association’s August Ads of the Month

Once again we’re taking a look at three of the most effective new UK ads from the past month, asking what brands can learn from them and paying special attention to any lessons for businesses hoping to emphasise sustainability messages and practices (as seen in our The Greenprint report). Humour is the name of the game this month, with three ads that take different, quirky routes to amusing their audience.

First up is Dolmio, who have brought back their famous animated family for a 40th anniversary campaign based around their “When’s Your Dolmio Day?” platform. The Dolmio Dad is looking a bit older these days but he’s staying up to date, with the ad revolving around his daughter filming him cooking for some shortform video content. She rolls her eyes, though, when Dad adds the hashtag “#spicycontent”. It’s a funny, silly family vignette just like Dolmio used to make, justifying the return of these favourite old characters.

What also justifies the comeback is the Test Your Ad scores – a mighty 4.9-Star Rating predicting very strong long-term effectiveness and placing Dolmio’s ad in the Top 10 sauces and condiments spots we’ve ever tested. It’s clear that some of this emotional response is down to happiness at seeing the familiar faces again, with a surge in Brand Fluency (recognition) as the family appear on screen.

Dolmio’s ad doesn’t have an overt sustainability message but the use of Fluent Devices – recurring characters like the Dolmio Family – does offer a valuable lesson to sustainable brands. The higher familiarity and fluency these characters bring helps you reduce the frequency of advertising and messaging – you can do more with less spend – and they can also evolve into trusted messengers for more advanced sustainable behaviours.

Kopparberg take a less overtly humorous and more whimsical and surreal approach in their new ad, which tells the story of a young man’s trip across town shepherding a giant disco ball to its destination in a pub beer garden. The ad is upbeat, with an uplifting dance music soundtrack; it’s also friendly, surprising and entertaining, stepping entirely away from the category conventions of beer and cider.

That distinctive approach is what makes it a 5-Star ad, landing in the Top 2% of all UK beer and cider commercials and in our all-time Top 10 for the sector. It manages to evoke joy and fun without any of the cliches you’d associate with a cider commercial. Kopparberg take sustainability very seriously – it’s embedded in their mission as a brand – and we found it very interesting that there are so many subtle cues around sustainable behaviours in this apparently unrelated ad. We see cycling shown positively, our hero uses public transport to get the disco ball across town, and the ad gives the impression of a strong sense of community too. It’s an ad that’s set in a world where people look out for each other and for their environment.

Finally it’s the AA’s turn, with a commercial that risks sadness before ending up at silliness and happiness. A car has broken down, and in the back is a little girl desperate to get her pet hamster to the vet. It looks to the viewer like it might already be too late, but when the AA man promises to repair the car quickly, the pet gives a broad animatronic wink. By the end of the ad the creature is right as rain – another job done quickly and well for the breakdown service.

The ad gets a very strong 4.6-Star Rating, which is actually the first 4-Star ad we’ve ever tested in the Car Parts and Services category. As you can imagine, laughs in this sector are usually in short supply. Which makes it all the more impressive that the AA have gone for humour and pulled it off so well.

It’s a good opportunity to remind ourselves that humour isn’t just for frivolous situations and FMCG products – it can work in any category, if used well. And for categories where sustainability is important, humour can be a really powerful way of avoiding the “switch-off” factor that comes when audiences think they’re being preached to. Laughter can make big things feel manageable, and for behaviour change that’s a very powerful tool.

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Great advertising changes how people feel before it changes what they do. 

Testing with real people helps you understand whether your creative is overcoming indifference, building emotional connection, and making your brand impossible to ignore. It shows whether you’re creating work that resonates instinctively, communicates clearly, and earns its place in memory. 

Because effectiveness isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s measurable. 

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