The idea. The crafting of the commercial. Its purpose. It’s trifecta of excellence for Zulu Alpha Kilo. The spot parodies agencies’ obsession with winning awards.
Awards are the holy grail in the industry. And yet, the most award-winning work isn’t usually the most well-known. If you asked your neighbour to name their favourite ad, they’re more likely to name that hilarious new beer commercial than the latest Gold Lion winner in the corporate purpose category. Zulu Alpha Kilo’s commercial, Left-Handed Mango Chutney, wonders what’s more important: winning over awards judges or winning over consumers?
The scenario is familiar. The satire is sharp. Zac reminds the industry that advertising’s most important goal is to resonate with consumers first, and awards judges second.
Left-Handed Mango Chutney debuted at last night’s annual Agency of the Year competition in Toronto. As part of the show, the top agencies are invited to create their own self-promo videos about whatever subject they want. Zulu has often used these videos as a platform to push back against the industry’s sacred cows. Last year’s Awards Gone Wild video poked fun at the industry’s awards obsession by showing what would happen if other professions resorted to these same tactics to win awards.
The viral sensation, Say No to Spec, started a movement against spec work in new business pitches and has garnered millions of views on YouTube and Facebook to date.
Other comedic videos have included, World’s Worst RFP, satirising the RFP process, and Billy’s Lemonade, which lampooned holding companies, while celebrating agency independence.
Like all previous Zulu videos, agency founder and chief creative officer, Zak Mroueh, directed this year’s video through the agency’s in-house production arm, Zulubot. This is also his third consecutive collaboration with the creative team of Jonah Flynn and Michael Siegers.
Besides screening one of the most controversial videos of the night, Zulu Alpha Kilo also won Silver Agency of the year.
Credits
Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Chief Creative Officer & Creative Director: Zak Mroueh
Associate Creative Director-Writer: Jonah Flynn
Associate Creative Director-Art Director: Michael Siegers
Account Management: Shauna McKenna
Producer: Colleen Allen
Production Assistant: Amy Groll
Production Company: Zulubot
Director: Zak Mroueh
Post Production Company: Zulubot
Executive Producer: Adam Palmer
Director of Photography: Adam Griffiths
Second Camera: Adam Griffiths
Editor: Max Lawlor
Casting: Shasta Lutz @ Jigsaw Casting
Online: Max Lawlor
Colour: Zulubot
Colourist: Can Yuksel
Audio Engineer: Stephen Stepanic
