Expect to be peppered with quick little sledges during State of Origin. They’re not aimed at you, they’re much more fun. State of Origin rivals old and new will rib each other in a series of twenty contextural TVCs and videos that react to the State of Origin gameplay (and keep Australia’s rich banter history and deft sledging skills alive and well-practised).

Sledge topics will include reactions to immediate on-field gameplay, old grudges, politics, player stats, the infamous ’95 Brawl, and insider perspectives amplified across TV, social, digital and PR.

Yes, they’re Menulog’s newest way of getting into sport into a very playful manner, again with Channel 9, this time by McCann. Menulog is the Official Broadcast Sponsor for the 2021 State of Origin Series for the second year.

The new idea follows last year’s campaign in which stars remixed Menulog’s Did Somebody Say jingle. The sledges will feature footy legends, Andrew “Joey” Johns, Wendell Sailor, Paul “Chief”

Harragon, Matt Bowen, Brett Kimmorley and Billy Moore.

Menulog launched the campaign, #OrginSnackdown, with social media and PR activity, kicking off with a competition giving Aussies the chance to have Origin Sledgends, Wendell Sailor and Paul Harragon delivered to their door as lounge room commentators and personal sledging mentors. In addition, Menulog will be putting on the ultimate Origin Game Two viewing party, fully catered with a personal bar and one-stop-Origin-merch-shop for two winners and nine lucky mates each. To enter, consumers need to share their most witty food-pun sledge on Facebook Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag, #OriginSnackdown.

Menulog marketing director, Simon Cheng, stated “We wanted to build on the success of last year’s State of Origin TVC with a campaign that celebrates a uniquely Australian sporting tradition and taps into our love of banter, especially around key sporting moments around State of Origin time.

“There are few things that divide Aussies quite like footy rivalry and this reaches fever pitch during State of Origin. We wanted to harness this competitive spirit and deliver the lighter side of the rivalry between fans by heroeing the great tradition of sledging.”

McCann chief creative officer, Ben Coulson, stated, “We had a lot of fun working with the NRL legends and mining them for good stories. We have quite a few ideas ready to go before kick-off tomorrow night, but we’re most excited to see how the games play out – and have pens ready to respond as it happens.”

Wendell Sailor commented, “You can either be good at it or really bad at sledging – and personally, I’ve mastered it. Joey’s a good stirrer but Chief, terrible, worst out there. I’m more than happy to help Aussies up their sledging game with Menulog’s ad campaign for Origin 2021. On the field, sledging fires you up and gives you the edge but if you’re going to sledge, you have to be ready to cop some retaliation.”

Credits

Client: Menulog
Marketing Director: Simon Cheng  
Head of Brand: Fiona Bateman 
Head of PR and Communications: Lisa Brown 
Marketing Manager: Ashlee Lynch-Marson  
Public Relations Manager: Duncan Fredericks  
Head of Growth Marketing: Kia Petrenko 
Social Media Marketing Manager: Perry Neilson 

Agency: McCann
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Coulson
Creative Directors: Daniel Miller & Christian Duffy
Senior Copywriter: Chris Nguyen
Executive Strategy Director: Roshni Hegerman 
Senior Account Manager:  Isabella Best
Senior Producer: Melina Flood  
Editor: Nick Withford 

Production: CUB
Director: Dean Ginsberg 
Senior Producer: Katrina Olsen  
Executive Producer: James Carr 

Finchco Agency
Managing Partner & Creative Principle: Alexandra Bryant  
Senior Account Director: Sally Heydon 
Senior Account Manager: Niki Aquino 
Senior Account Executive: Antonia Minutolo 

Connecting Plots
Creative Partner: Dave Jansen 
Creative Director: Chris Johnson 
Head of Social & Content: Lewis Steele  
Integrated Project Director: Gemma Barr  
Copywriter: Julia Kenny 
Art Director: Alexa Burchell 

Media: UM