In this week’s What We Watched, a tribute to Ernest P. Worrell, Snapchat reboots, and New Zealand Police Department triumphs with its recruitment video.
Freeze! NZ Police’s most entertaining recruitment video, yet!
Kiwis are just the best. I’m sure you’ve seen the Air New Zealand safety videos, which not only keep the passengers engaged during the mandatory safety instruction but also tend to go viral online. Now, the New Zealand police department has a viral video of its own. As part of its really smart “Do you care enough to be a cop?” campaign, NZ Police Recruitment released this Hollywood-esque, tongue-in-cheek video to ramp up recruitment across the country. Enjoy!
CJ Powell, Writer
Snapchat Outlines Coming Re-Design, Which is Being Rolled Out to Some Users This Week
In an effort to combat the exponential popularity of Instagram Stories, Snapchat is giving itself a little makeover. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel dives into how the platform will help separate the “social” from the “media”. Time will tell how this overhaul impacts not only Snapchat’s usability as a whole, but how brands utilize the platform as well.
Kaitlyn Ambrose, Content Producer
A Tribute to Ernest P. Worrell
Earlier this week, COHN Art Director Teri Springer and I started thinking about Ernest P. Worrell, the goofy, obnoxious, idiot character that began as a single local ad in 1980 and grew into 9 feature length movies. History has forgotten Ernest P. Worrell, and the actor who played him (Jim Varney) died in 2000. I wanted to share this video because I didn’t know the real Ernest story until now. Nashville ad agency Carden & Cherry conceived the Ernest character and set up, where annoying Ernest would run into “Vern” (the viewer) and begin rambling conversations about the sponsor’s product. The campaign, which ran more than 800 times (in local markets only) across the country was so successful, the smalltime character hit the big screen a whopping nine times, including six more films in development before the actor’s death. I know Ernest is sort of a joke and a very irritating memory for most of us, but can you imagine creating a character for a client that blew up the way Ernest did? Kudos to Jim Varney and Carden & Cherry. KnowwhatImean?
CJ Powell, Writer
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