Airbnb’s new ad, “Is Mankind?” gets the parody version it deserves?
Last week, The Stable suggested that Airbnb’s new commercial, Is Mankind? had perhaps wandered by accident over the line of serious advertising into humour.
Read, Is Airbnb serious? here.
Apparently The Stable’s view is not unique to us. Several parody versions have popped into being already.
The one by US digital agency, Portal A, gets a triple A rating. Airbnb’s toddler has been replaced with a grown man in his undies, who’s rather reminiscent of Dads on Briefs. And the new voiceover begins:
“Is man – kind? Are we – good? No. We are creepy. Like this man. He left pubic hair in your bed. He found your panties and tried them on …”
Eventually the parody reaches its climax, the tagline, It’s his house now, and the hashtag, #creepy.
Parody isn’t all that Portal A does. “PORTAL A is an award-winning digital studio that develops, produces, and distributes video built for conversation,” where “award-winnig” is not meant to be a cliche. (You do have to wonder if there is anything in adland not “award-winning”?)
The agency created the official music video for Pitch Perfect 2, for example, as well as videos for YouTube rewind, NBC universal and Universal Pictures.
But it does like to do work that makes people stop and take notice. Its ad, Nice Package, for Benefit Cosmetics was noticed by Mashable, Buzzfeed, HuffPo, and Jezebel, which led to 1 million views for the brand.
The agency has also built a YouTube channel, Ad Hoc videos, where it puts its parody ads.
In view of the trillions of self esteem ads that Real Beauty Sketches spawned, Dove Real Beauty Sketches: #Balls: Your balls are more beautiful than you think, is a favourite:
And Portal A’s parody version of Carnival Cruises Super Bowl 2015 spot, Sea You in Hell is another example of the agency’s cleverness at mocking earnestness.
Carnival had appropriated John F. Kennedy’s remarks at the 1962 America’s Cup Dinner for its narration in the original ad. To be fair, the ad was one of four that the cruise company produced for the Super Bowl. And fans had vote for the JFK one that went to air:
