Is InfieldFEST's Kegasus an Old Spice rip-off?
The birth of a product pitchman is a complicated process that sometimes involves focus groups, lots of spit-balling, and drinking twenty Old Fashioneds in a row a la Don Draper.
Other times, it just boils down to watering down another firm's more successful campaign and adding a nipple ring.
That may just have been what Elevation, the DC-based firm, did to come up with Kegasus.
It's hard to imagine there was a pitch meeting to cobble together this thing, but even "The Rural Juror" had its own spitballing session.
But AdFreak points out that Old Spice had already used a centaur pitchman created by Portland-based firm Wielden+ Kennedy about two years ago.
Compare and contrast:
2008 Old Spice spot:
Kegasus spot:
Update: Asked for a reaction, a W+K spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on other people's work.
Erik Maza is a features reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He writes for several sections of the Sun paper and contributes weekly columns on music and nightlife. He also writes and edits the Midnight Sun blog. He often covers entertainment, business, and the business of entertainment. Occasionally, he writes about Four Loko, The Block, the liquor board, and those who practice "
Comments
"it just boils down to watering down another firm's more successful campaign and adding a nipple ring."
Indeed, somewhere Sessa is crying about what you have done to his blog.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 30, 2011 3:48 PM
is your assertion that all centaurs are off limits because old spice used them?
i think the pitch is pretty lame, but overlap is part of the game. at least they've had the integrity to give it a name and motto/catchphrase that works.
old spice played on 'being two things' while infieldfest focuses on being a 'manimal/kegasus.' fair enough.
Posted by: dan | March 30, 2011 4:00 PM
i think it's a stretch to equate kegasus as being a rip off of old spice. both the content and the style of the creatures themselves are vastly different.
yes. they're both centaurs. i get it. all future centaur advertisements will be a rip off of old spice. heck, all pitchman based ads are a rip off of old spice.
excellent comparison. your journalism is just a rip off of ... other writing, but with a nipple ring.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 30, 2011 4:13 PM
Kegasus makes perfect sense to me. Nobody seems to have mentioned that he's the pitchman for tickets to a horse race. So yeah... he's half horse.
And I think that the nipple ring is an inspired touch.
Although in theory, readers of the Sun's nightlife blog are just the type to whom Kegasus should appeal, let's face it - more than half of the infield at Pimlico is illiterate.
Posted by: Esteban | March 30, 2011 5:01 PM
well gosh esteban/anonymous/dan, that doesn't sound like shilling at all.
Posted by: anon | March 30, 2011 5:04 PM
shilling? really?
never been to preakness infield. could really care less. and wasn't meaning to be overly negative - just offering my opinion. he asked the question; is it a ripoff?
i say no. its only a ripoff so much as every beer commercial is a ripoff of every other beer commercial.
Posted by: dan | March 31, 2011 12:38 PM