In the early ‘90s, I had the privilege of leading the development of advertising for Evian Natural Spring Water for the Canadian market. The brand had built a foundation in the Québec market and was on the verge of explosive growth in the rest of country as Canadians were starting to discover the health benefits of bottled water - before it became it unfortunately became mainly a commodity. I worked with ad agency Harrod & Mirlin where a very talented team created several campaigns for this great client. While it wasn’t part of the core campaign, one billboard stood out from the body of work: Wanda The Fish.
This ad won several awards and got many admirers in the industry. In this 2001 interview in Strategy Magazine, Mike Robitaille, who at the time was Marketing Director at Labatt, commented: “‘It was an endorsement done in the most creative way I could possibly imagine – a testimonial from someone who knows water best.”
There were other posters in the series. Noah’s Ark remains my favourite.
The truth is that this billboard campaign wasn’t planned. It was the genius of a young copywriter whose true passion was cartooning. Grahame Arnould created Wanda, showed it to Brian Harrod who immediately saw its brilliant simplicity. Brian always said that a great billboard should be a visual shout. This was too good to ignore so we showed it to great clients, Philippe Jacob and Daniel Cotte, who supported it 100%. But we needed to get media support which we couldn’t afford. Brian McLean, the president of Mediacom at the time, immediately saw how this poster would benefit both the brand and his medium. So he gave the brand a free posting at Yonge & Bloor for all to see.
From the French Alps to babies.
Evian was a terrific brand to be associated with. At the time, there was a global brand strategy but no global campaign so it was a great creative opportunity for a local agency. As one would expect with a global brand, the work developed for Canada had to be approved by senior executives in Paris.
After a few years focusing on the French Alps origins of Evian, we developed a unique creative approach for the Canadian market. It was the brainchild of Dianne Eastman. It showed water babies smiling underwater. It not only dramatized the purity of Evian, it was anchored in a brand truth since it is common in France to give newborn babies Evian water.
We presented the campaign to the Paris-based executive responsible for North America. The room was filled with stunning photos of water babies. It was rejected on the spot. How could we show naked infants swimming in Evian water? What if consumers think some are peeing in it? That was the end of that and the idea was abandoned. The account was eventually shifted to another agency and global campaigns were created for the brand.
To my great satisfaction, the water babies eventually made it into the brand’s advertising. Someone else was obviously able to overcome the objection we had faced five years earlier.
The babies were introduced by BETC Paris in 1998 with the French spot “Water Babies”. They were made famous a decade later by the global “Roller Babies” spot (one of the most-watched ads ever on YouTube).
The babies returned last year with a campaign called "Baby & Me." As Tim Nudd wrote in AdWeek, “Once again, they represent your gleeful inner child, but this time they want to dance with you.”
What was clearly an idea before its time eventually became a big one.
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