McVitie's new ad puts five of its biscuits in one film for the first time, soundtracked by a reworked version of the 1984 Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder hit.
The song in the new McVitie’s advert is a reworked version of Together in Electric Dreams, the 1984 synth-pop hit by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder. It soundtracks “There’s only one that brings us all together”, a new TV spot from adam&eveTBWA that went up on the channel of McVitie’s owner, pladis, on 13 September.
Oakey, the singer of The Human League, wrote the track with Moroder for the soundtrack of the 1984 film Electric Dreams. Released as a single in September 1984, it reached number three in the UK and spent thirteen weeks on the chart. It went on to outlive the film by some distance, which is a neat irony given Oakey later told Smash Hits he had never much liked it.
The film is the first time McVitie’s has put its best-known biscuits in the same ad: Ginger Nuts, Rich Tea, Club, Jaffa Cakes and Digestives. Greg Hackett directed it through Park Pictures, and the scenes are all about sharing, with packs passed round between colleagues, families, a pregnancy yoga class and a group of friends settled in front of Countdown. As Creative Review pointed out, there is not a phone or tablet in sight.
A run of outdoor posters plays on the Digestives and Hobnobs packs to carry the same idea. Paul Jordan, creative partner at adam&eveTBWA, argued the brand has no need to force its way into British culture because “it’s already there”, describing the job as a modern portrait of British life with McVitie’s as the social glue.
It follows the recent Jaffa Cakes eclipse ad, which reworked the brand’s “full moon, half moon” spot from the late 1990s and did well on social. That is two nostalgia plays in quick succession, and the song choice does the heavy lifting: an early eighties synth hit is a shortcut to warmth for exactly the people who buy biscuits by the multipack.
It is also the second big British launch this month built on a borrowed pop song, after Boots reworked These Boots Are Made for Walkin’. The risk with a well-worn track is that it belongs to everyone, so the brand has to earn it through repetition, the way Yorkshire Tea made a whole tone of voice its own over years rather than a single ad.
Credits: adam&eveTBWA. Chief creative officers Ant Nelson and Mike Sutherland, creative partner Paul Jordan, creative director Lauren Coates, design director Aaron Moss, senior designers Luke McClure and Aaron Jangal. Production company Park Pictures, director Greg Hackett.
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