Rona Made the Most 'Half-Assed' Campaign Ever

Home improvement goes whole-hog for quality

Quality construction and renovation work is something we can all get behind. Cue “Half-Ass,” an oddball brand ambassador repping Canadian outfit Rona.

This half-donkey shambles sadly through town in the :60 below, a cautionary metaphor crafted by Courage and Smuggler director Guy Shelmerdine.

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“The first time I saw the idea, it was a Sharpie sketch that the team had put up on the wall with the words ‘never half-ass’ scribbled on it,” Courage CCO and founder Dhaval Bhatt tells Muse. “I knew right away that we had something.”

“As crazy as the idea seems, it’s actually super insightful about how the main target for this campaign—pros and aspiring pros—think,” he says. “Our strategy was to position RONA as the place for people who do things right, and ‘Half-Ass’ was an incredibly breakthrough way of landing that point.”

So, they put someone in a costume for filming?

“This may spoil the magic of ‘Half-Ass,’ but it is a combination of a puppet and CGI,” Bhatt says. “It’s custom made by this company in Vancouver that’s created puppets for major Hollywood productions. The life-size puppet was operated by a bunch of people in green suits, who were then removed in post.”

For us, nothing can spoil the “Half-Ass” magic, rest assured.

Wisely, they let the absurd visuals carry the day. If the critter spoke or drove a pickup laden with building materials, this approach would’ve gone bust. As it is, we get a memorable message that just might stick in viewers’ heads.

Director Shelmerdine’s all about puppetry and such, helming forays for Marmite and Samsung with wacky elements.

“Half-Ass” began rolling out last week across TV, OLV, OOH and social platforms.