Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Why is everyone talking about the wrong Bacardi ad?

Lately a new Bacardi ad emerged. And everyone seems to be talking about it (here). A very angry woman goes into a cafe where four men are playing cards along with a waiter behind the bar, she raises hell on all of them scolding them for leaving her alone, at the wee hours of the night, and so on and so forth. The trick? All men think she is someone else's wife when she isn't any.

But in 2006 Bacardi launched a different, funnier and better structured ad. A very angry woman goes into a cafe... Only to find her husband as the waiter! She is astonished and he explains to her that in order for her to have all the lovely things, so that she can enjoy such as breakfast with her mother and go shopping with her friends, he works at a bank during the day and a waiter at night. She melts. As soon as she leaves the cafe the man gives back his jacket and shirt to the real waiter who was hiding among the men at a table nearby (here).

Just to be clear I am not saying this is plagiarism despite the same idea of "angry woman" and "cafe" and "waiter" as both ads as shaped differently. But just to be clear, the original is the winner.