Bad Internet Invades the Real World in Amusing Ad for Fiber Broadband

What’s more frustrating than a wonky internet connection that slows down or freezes at inopportune moments, causing images to blur or break and files to stop downloading?

Work, dammit! I’m missing the greatest dancing-pig video of all time!

This common source of online frustration invades the real world in an amusing minute-long film created by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand and Sweetshop director Damien Shatford for Chorus, a fiber broadband provider.

It’s a fun romp, with a hapless dude enduring lags and dropouts IRL. Meanwhile, Fido’s Apple-style pinwheel fetch-ball hangs in mid-air. Spinning and spinning. And spinning. Always spinning…

Naturally, Chorus saves the day, reminding folks to check out its service.

“Uptake of fiber is now at just under 60 percent [in New Zealand], and that means we are now talking to the last adopters,” says Chorus marketing lead Karren Harker. “They are a notoriously hard audience to engage with on technology, feeling more comfortable in the adoption only when a product has gone mainstream. Our latest campaign is focused on tapping into this mindset by positioning fiber as the new normal and demonstrating the everyday benefits to build desire for those last adopters to convert.”

Though the creative approach isn’t new, it’s particularly effective, as WFH culture brings the need for quick, reliable connections into starkly unpixelated focus. These days, you can’t afford to lag behind!
 
“Often people aren’t aware that their poor experience isn’t normal and that they don’t have to put up with it,” says Saatchi executive creative director Corey Chalmers. “We hope this will serve as a reminder that there is a solution out there that will put an end to Kiwis’ ‘badnet’ experiences.”

CREDITS

Client: Chorus
Creative Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
Media Agency: FCB
Production company: Sweetshop
Director: Damien Shatford
Executive Producer: Ben Dailey
Executive Producer: Kate Roydhouse
DOP: Nigel Bluck
Production Designer: Guy Treadgold
Post / VFX: Blockhead – Stefan Coory
Audio: Liquid Studios – Craig Matuschka
Music: licensed Recording Debussy – Clare de Lune