This print campaign for Zanussi is over 20 yrs old – but has a little story behind it that still makes me smile today.
I created these ads for Zanussi Thailand, in the land of smiles, while working for an ad agency in Bangkok. The client wanted a change of emphasis in their advertising to highlight the Italian heritage of the Zanussi brand – as its origin and background was not well known in the region. Deciding to have a little fun with the creative, I took stereotypical Italian characters from the worlds of movies and sport, and used them in a way that even in Thailand, was a bit risky.
Before the shoot, we asked the photographer’s assistant to source an authentic looking imitation handgun for the mafia hitman photo. Expecting he’d get it perhaps from hobby/toy shops, antique sellers, or somewhere like that. You know, and find something that would look convincing enough.
However, our jaws dropped when the assistant returned about two hours later with a real revolver and 5 bullets. He’d got it from ‘a guy’.
He said ‘the guy’ had asked him, “Do you want bullets too?”
So he’d replied “Yes. Okay. Just a couple”
(thinking his boss and I, might want them as props).
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- Get rid of dirt
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- Wash away sin
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- Score against grime
Nervous about a mysterious firearm in the studio, we immediately changed our schedule to prep and shoot the mafia photo first. When it was done, we thoroughly cleaned the gun and bullets of all our fingerprints before popping it in a bag with the agreed ‘fee’. Then sent the assistant off as fast as we could, to return the weapon to its mysterious owner. Needless to say, the studio was a much more relaxed place after the weapon had left the building. Although we kept watching the clock anxiously and sweated, until the buzzer rang and he was back safely.
Thai people tended to take you very literally. Even the model (sourced by the photographer) turned out to be a real Italian, on holiday in the country. So I could only presume the gun came from a real, but local, mafia. And of course, I found out later (what they had been reluctant to tell me on the day), it did.
The campaign won a Bangkok Art Directors Award and was written about in the media section of The Bangkok Post, who curiously described the campaign as ‘the first of its kind seen in Thailand’.
(Given the ‘mafia’ involvement, I couldn’t really argue with that!)
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