Drag queens can enliven anything with their exuberant joy, even supermarket advertising. To celebrate Pride Month, they are enlivening a commercial about saving money at Penny. The wonderfully kitsch, outrageously colourful musical idea comes from Serviceplan Campaign and the campaign stars German celebrity drag queen, Olivia Jones, and her drag family in a two-minute musical extravaganza that audiences cannot possibly ignore.
Christoph Everke, creative managing director of Serviceplan Campaign, noted, “Cheap doesn’t have to be boring at all. We wanted to show that anyone and everyone can use Penny’s store brand to ‘drag up’ their ‘normal’ everyday life, so that it becomes special and exciting – even with little money. And who better to embody such a colourful world than our campaign’s star – Olivia Jones?”
The video was directed by Finnish director, Viivi Huuska, who is a part of the drag queen scene as both a performer and director, and her brother is known on the scene as drag queen, Cristal Snow.
Heidi Kabel’s Hamburg cult hit Das gibt’s nur auf der Reeperbahn, which inspired Todrick Hall’s Nails, Hair, Lips, Heels was specially reinterpreted as Wer günstig will, muss PENNY [If you want it cheap – ob-vi-ous-ly it’s PENNY] for gthe commercial, which was filmed in Penny store, Kiez in Hamburg’s red-light and entertainment district the Reeperbahn, a well-known district where local celebrity Oliva Jones has often performed.
The TVC is supported in print, online and social media and can now be seen throughout Germany. Under the hashtag, #dragupyourday, a TikTok dance challenge has been launched to inspire a young target group for the campaign. TikTok users are being called upon to dance to the campaign song, accompanied in their dance by a Penny store brand product.
Stefan Magel, divisional director Germany’s REWE Group and chief operating officer of Penny, commented, “We have been successfully positioning ourselves as a neighborhood discount store for years. But as a company, we also stand for openness, tolerance, and respect. It is no coincidence that we are launching our campaign during Pride Month 2021. With this campaign, PENNY combines both of these aspects. Our message is: Penny is for everyone. But we also want to show that saving can be fun and an exciting experience all on its own. We offer high-quality food at low prices every day.”
Credits:
Agency: Serviceplan
Managing Partner: Christoph Everke
Creative Directors: Matthias Schuster & Moritz Dornig
Senior Art Directors: Rebecca Labiner & Helena Mertig
Senior Copywriter: Alessia Coschignano
Junior Art Director: Johanna Köhler
Junior Copywriters: Kevin Ratnayaka, Katja Gietl & Katharina King
Senior Account Managers: Alexander Mankel & Julia Leibetseder
Content Agency: Neverest
Executive Producer: Aisha Blackwell
Production Company: Goodhouse Films
Executive Producer: Julian Brinkmann
Producer: Jens Gröger
Editor: Robin Thomson
Colorist: Nike Cantarelli
Sound Design: Hastings Music
VFX Company: Namoto
Producer: Mirko Hampel
VFX Artists: Ines Kossack, Tanja Kerner & Timon Patris
Music: Maximilian Olowinsky @ Supreme Music
Rights: Lotar Olias, Karl Vibach; 1962 Bühnen und Musikverlage Dr Sikorski, Hamburg and Edition Esplanade, Hamburg
