Claude Shade
Director at APM Music
San Francisco, United States
TitleLuv Bird
Agency
Campaign Re-launch of Pony
Advertiser Pony
Brand Pony
Date of First Broadcast/Publication 2004 / 2
Business Sector Shoes
Story The “Luv Bird” is a good visual to sum up the pony positioning: feet with attitude. It’s a funny way to speak like our target (the young people). It’s just a foot saying: “Fuck you”. It took us one year to understand the American mentality… Now we got it. The humor comes also from the fact that we shot it in a very dramatic way, almost like a classical portrait, with a beautiful light. The art direction emphasizes the “depth” of the message. Be sure that some bad spirits will also see here a “Fuck-off” to the Pony competitors.
Philosophy The Pony campaign is built around 5 icons with 5 different ideas. We didn’t want to standardize the campaign with one single creative mechanism. We didn’t want either the usual cheap and alluring tagline. There is no tag line on the campaign. We preferred to let the young people (our target) free to interpret the 5 visual the way they want.



The most important for us was to show a confident brand with an attitude and a strong irreverent personality. Basically we wanted people to stop and look at the ads. The biggest risk when you arrive on such a crowded market is to be inefficient, to not been seen… No one notices your ad, and after a few months, you realize that you spent all that money for nothing. We wanted to generate a reaction from the viewer and ideally… creating a little debate around each picture.
Problem It shows a confident brand with an attitude. Take the 5 visuals, and try to substitute the Pony logo by the competitor’s logos like Nike, Adidas, Reebok or Puma; it doesn’t work. Pony must be the only athletic brand that can behave in such an irreverent way. This brand has the potential to become the coolest athletic brand in the next years. The advertising campaign has to be the reflection of that.



Second main constraint: The Pony campaign had to run in 120 countries around the world. So the campaign had to be also universal. As a creative team, it’s the biggest campaign we’ve ever done.
Media Type Print
Creative Director
Art Director
Concept
Copywriter
Art Director
Account Manager
Account Manager
Agency Producer
Advertiser's Supervisor
Photographer
Digital Retouch

People related to this work

Related Ads

Trending

Create a free Talent profile and become a member of AdForum

Get Started