Seven relation army

Wimpy’s suburban heart of glass

With some of my South African relatives finally touching down in the UK post the volcanic ash cloud flight embargo, it was interesting to pick up on a musically led campaign emanating from the region this week.

A new Wimpy ad from South Africa offers an insight into a not-so-typical South African family unit in a bid to connect with close-knit SA suburban family life.  The commercial highlights the musical prowess of the ‘Skoltimaier Seven’ who, resplendent in skin tight lycra and 80s shoulder pads, perform ‘Funky Town’ on collectible glasses in their living room – part of an in-store promotional giveaway effort from the restaurant chain.

The campaign kicked off with a short viral mockumentary of the homespun band. “We are like the Jackson 7, or 6, but we are better than those little guys with all their face jobs – we are all natural,” says the person playing ‘the `son’ in the viral.

The ad itself owes much to the Cadbury’s school of viral ad/music combos. The focus of the whole commercial actually centres on the youngest girl member of the family who, up front and centre, sports the oddest side-to-side head movement (almost as freakishly unnatural as – and remarkably similar looking to – the girl in Cadbury’s ‘Dancing Eyebrows’ ad from 2009).

With extended family as important as individuals in their nuclear family in many white South African homes, the ad – regardless of the light-hearted approach – uses music to promote this concept of unity and extend it to the notion of eating together. This could have been pushed further with some form of UGC element asking for other families to work together on other musical renditions.