Brilliant quick thinking by WorkInProgress, Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year 2020 (11-75 employees), has turned a funny internet sensation into a funny ad sensation for Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
Texan lawyer, Rod Ponton, made himself famous a couple of weeks ago when he couldn’t remove a cat filter from his screen while he was trying a court case on Zoom. His plea, “I’m not a cat,” was the icing on the cake for viewers who watched, liked and shared the video millions of times.
WorkInProgress saw an opportunity to borrow Ponton’s fame for Mike’s Hard Lemonade and put the twenty-two year-old brand at the front of popular culture in 2021.
The brand had been following pretty standard alcohol ad lines of late.
The new ad’s tag, A Hard Day Deserves a Hard Lemonade, had become buried in the brand’s ad history.
Cleverly, WorkInProgress recognised its power. Then the new commercial just needed Ponton’s AOK, which was given. Readily. And the spot was shot, edited and posted in under 24 hours.
For those who have missed out on the viral of the year (so far), here it is: