MAXELL | THE ISRAELITES | 1990
Turning "I can't make out the lyrics" into an ad, with help from Bob Dylan / MAXELL "THE ISRAELITES"
In 1990, the cassette tape was already on its way out. Losing to CDs on both sound quality and futuristic appeal, it had slipped to fifth place in the UK blank tape market. That's when Hitachi Maxell dropped this 30-second ad.
The problem
In a market shrinking under pressure from CDs, Maxell—despite being a long-established brand—had fallen all the way to fifth place in the UK. The agency they turned to was HHCL, the sharpest shop in London at the time.
The insight
You know that thing where you love a song but can't make out the lyrics at all? In English it's apparently called a "mondegreen." The song they picked was Desmond Dekker's "Israelites." With its heavy Jamaican accent, it had long been famous in the UK as the song nobody could understand.
The idea
They borrowed, almost exactly, the famous flip-card sequence from Bob Dylan's legendary video. A man flips through cards while "Israelites" plays, but instead of the actual lyrics, the cards show misheard versions—like "The Israelites" sounding like "My ears are alight." At the end, one line: "If you'd recorded it on Maxell, you'd have heard it properly." A sister version using The Skids' "Into the Valley" was made at the same time.
What happened
It aired in January 1990. It won a Graphite Pencil at D&AD Advertising, and Maxell climbed from fifth to second place in the cassette tape market. As a bonus, it also brought renewed attention to Desmond Dekker himself.
Afterthought
What I love is that instead of hiding the cassette's weak point, the ad boldly says "that's exactly why you need Maxell." Turning something as dry as sound quality into a relatable joke everyone's experienced—that kind of creative thinking just gets me every time.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 1990
