Pippa’s vision for TV ads
Fair Go presenter Pippa Wetzell talks to Sarah Nealon about the Fair Go Ad Awards and why TV commercials are still relevant.
T elevision commercials often cop flak from viewers. They are criticised for being too loud or too annoying or simply too cheesy.
But without advertising, a lot of TV shows would never make it to air.
Every year Fair Go pays homage to the advertising workers who are responsible for making those clips which are designed to capture viewers’ attention and, hopefully, make us fork out for whatever is being promoted.
The annual Fair Go Ad Awards is a special show in which viewers’ votes determine the best, and worst, TV advertisement of the year.
Pippa Wetzell, who co-hosts the show with Haydn Jones, has a positive message for the recipient of the worst ad award.
“Winning the worst ad is not quite as bad as people think,” she says. “Surely one of the things you’re trying to achieve is that your ad is remembered and it has stickability.
“Having said that I think people would prefer to be on the other side of the ledger.”
The Fair Go Ad Awards have been running for decades and Pippa says they are a “big deal” in the advertising industry.
“There is always a clear winner of best ad and worst ad,” she says.
“Sometimes it’s not unusual to find an award that becomes a finalist in both categories. People who love it (the ad) can’t believe that people wouldn’t love it and vice versa.
“I always think for advertising agencies that might be the best possible scenario. They cut through across the board.”
However, with the uptake of streaming services such as Lightbox and Netflix which are ad-free, are TV ads still relevant? “I think what we will end up seeing are better quality ads and they won’t just obviously run on TV. They’ll run across a range of formats and things like that,” says Pippa. “But they become almost little features in themselves. I know that’s where a lot of people’s minds are at. “I think what we’ll start seeing is some really amazing ads being made that will be almost ones that people look for. “The advertising agencies realise that if people are going to give them their time – because they don’t have to nowadays – that they have to make it worth their while. “Advertising is definitely changing and the reality is not everybody watches ads the way that we used to but I think people miss it a little bit too. It’s something that bonds people. “A lot of us can probably remember quite fondly, the ads from our childhood and that’s something that kind of connects us.” This year the Fair Go Ad Awards screens in two parts with the first episode looking at the best and worst ads while the second episode features the Fair Go Kids
Ad Awards. Here, school students were asked to create something out of plastic bottles and then make an ad promoting it. “Some kids must have spent hours putting together the products that they made,” says Pippa. “Others approached it differently and made simple but really clever products. “They were really clever things and it was impressive. We had things like igloos, lots of green houses, gardening-type things. Some kids are really creative. We didn’t specify that they had to be genuine products or anything like that so we got some sort of make-believe things, which was pretty cool, like jewellery.
“You know what kids are like ... they’re amazing. Their imaginations don’t seem to be stifled in a way that adults are. So they came up with some really cool things and on top of that they had to make a 30-second ad promoting their product.”
Pippa, who has three children, aged nine, seven and five, thinks her offspring will also be impressed.
“One of my kids is really crafty and creative,” she says. “She’s always getting plastic things out of the recycling bin and turning them into stuff. There were a few things I saw and thought ‘She would love that. She could make those for Christmas presents’.”
The episode also looks at recycling, which is becoming increasingly popular with children.
“Kids are really mindful of it,” says Pippa. “One of my daughters has a real thing about plastic bags. She finds it disgusting. There is no way we can use plastic wrap or anything like that. She won’t have a bar of it which is great.”