Santam Responds to Sneaky Nando's Spoof

If an agency creates a spoof of one of your ads what would you do? Chances are you might be a little upset or angry at the thought of someone mimicking your creative ideas. But when Black River FC released a commercial for Nando’s recently, which spoofed King James Group’s clever Sir Sneaky video (above), the latter was flattered and thought the whole thing was funny. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to respond, and now the Cape Town agency has thrown down a finger-licking challenge to the chicken chain.

A few months ago Cape Town agency King James Group released the follow up to the Real McCoy commercial for Santam, featuring Ben Kingsley. The commercial sees the actor in charismatic role as he talks to the viewer through some insurance issues for the brand. Nicely done, we thought when the commercial was released, and it appears that we aren’t the only ones as Black River FC’s spoof spot, Options, has proved:

When King James Group’s group chief creative Alistair King caught wind of the clip, he was surprisingly supportive of the whole thing, having been familiar with Black River’s previous Nando’s work. The agency recently won Ad of the Year for its controversial, yet successful, Last Dictator Standing commercial and is behind the Santam spoof.

“They tend to generate a lot of publicity on the Nando's brand. Their work is often quite tactical, but no one ever spoofs their spoofs,” he says, hinting at his genius response. “The spoof wasn't really something that we or the client (Santam) were upset about. If anything, it's a compliment and we found it quite funny. So we didn’t feel compelled to respond in any way, publicly or legally, unless it was in a way that is elegant and dignified.”

The result is Back at Ya (below) and calls Nando’s out in the same style as the first two but does it with an underlying good cause, just as King suggests. In the video, Santam challenges Nando’s to deliver a large order of food to The Johannesburg Children’s Home by 4pm on Thursday and the smart response was shot by director Chloe Coetsee of Fringe @ Bouffant, who turned the new film around in just two and a half days.

The idea came to us immediately,” reveals King, “but it took two days to find out if the client was keen to respond. When I heard they were, I pitched the idea over the phone and they loved it immediately. Within four days the ad was shot and ready to release, so respect to Bouffant who pulled it together so elegantly. They shot the original Santam caign, too.”

So with the challenge laid down does King think there’ll be more spoofing of spoofs and clever comebacks? “We'll see,” he says, “The right thing to do would be to feed the children, but I guess the ball’s in their court. They make chicken, we provide insurance. There's no real reason for us to exchange marketing blows, and if anything we've given them more publicity. Hell, we read out their menu for them – they should be thrilled.”

“Santam are very involved in many CSI initiatives, and we felt the only reason to respond is if it did some good. We'd like to think that everyone wins in this," he concludes.