Thomson are a company that truly understands holidays and the fact that time on holiday is precious. As a result, they do more to ensure that you will get perfect quality time you need – whether this takes the form of an exclusive hotel or a taxi transfer from the airport.
The campaign, created by BMB to win hearts and minds by making the brand stand for something special, that you only get with Thomson and launching on 27 December, uses motion capture and special effects technology to tell the story of Simon the Ogre.
Simon the Ogre Idea
Everyone can appreciate the feeling of being just a little bit ground down by everyday life, and for some of us, we start to feel and behave like Ogres when life gets on top of us – especially if we haven’t had a holiday in a while. We wanted to show how Thomson , thanks to its carefully designed holiday experiences, offers the kind of quality time that is the perfect antidote to Ogre-ness. And so, to dramatise this process, we took the character of Simon, who starts the epic 120″ spot as an Ogre, and told the emotive story of how he is transformed via the experience of a Thomson holiday into the best version of himself again.
Campaign Fires Back
Thomson Holidays’ has received 80 complaints against its latest ad campaign, ‘Simon the Ogre,’ for causing offence to people with disfigurements and for trivialising disability.
Award Wining Advert
“Simon the Ogre,” mini-epic commercial from agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay won many awards:
- Kinsale Shark Advertising Festival 2014 FILM: INTERNATIONAL FILM Travel and tourism Gold
- Kinsale Shark Advertising Festival 2014 FILM: INTERNATIONAL FILM CRAFT Best use of post production/visual effects Bronze
- THE A-LIST HOLLYWOOD 2014 Film Advertising Craft Visual Effects Silver
- Cannes Lions, 2014 FILM LIONS TV & Cinema Film: Travel, Transport & Tourism SILVER
- One Show 2014 Advertising Consumer Television / Over 60 second – Single Merit Pencil
- British Arrow, 2014 The Winners Best New Creative Team Gold Award
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