Fanta's Latest Campaign is an Ode to Idiots

Today, Fanta has announced a new multi-channel campaign – In the Name of Play – designed to champion the unsung heroes of play and inspire the playful side in everyone.

This campaign, the first collaboration with 72andSunny, celebrates the real people behind some of the most hilariously dumb videos on the internet. The true champions of play.

The campaign will launch with a 60-second TV ad, showing clips of real-life internet stars embracing their playful personalities and engaging in the spontaneous and stress-busting fun, essential to their everyday lives. The new platform treats these real, everyday people like other brands treat superstar athletes. A 90-second anthem film is also available and dramatically showcases the hard work behind each purposeless play champion’s hilarious internet clip. Inspired by cinematically-rich sports commercials, the film opens with an anthemic track and dramatic voiceover as the champions limber up, train and take meaningful sips of Fanta. The intensity and ridiculousness of the piece builds until the ultimate, triumphant moment when the film cuts to all the original internet footage.

In the end, it turns out it’s all pretty purposeless and idiotic - but that’s exactly the point. In addition to the anthem, shorter films tell individual stories of inflatable giraffe gymnastics, snow swimming and wheelbarrow tricks, while iconic OOH showcases different champions in all their idiotic glory. On a local level, individual markets can feature their own hometown play champions in a weekly online highlight show of the best internet clips.

Additional activity to engage teens includes a social activation ‘Epic Nonsense’, which will feature and hero the best user-generated examples of purposeless play across Europe.

Each execution, from photography style to media placement, elevates the heroes of purposeless play to superstar status and challenges the world to “Unleash Your Inner Idiot.”

A digital campaign will also underpin the year-long activity, focusing on the most boring place in many young people’s lives – a bus stop – and hijacking the spaces with fun and unexpected play opportunities.

Walter Susini, The Coca-Cola Company senior vice president for marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa said “Fanta’s ‘In The Name of Play’ campaign is designed to encourage more play in the world. Not just any play but purposeless play, which has no goal except for having fun. All the research shows that the world needs more purposeless play and that it makes for happier, more creative and sociable people. And of course, it’s fun, so what’s not to like.”

The campaign breaks on March 2nd in Spain, Portugal and Norway with other markets to follow including Germany, Ireland, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.