OTRIVIN | Classroom Craft | 2011
If your mouth's hanging open, even the scissors treat you like a kid / Otrivin "Classroom Craft"
If a stuffy nose makes you breathe through your mouth, your teacher might peg you as "a bit of a special case" and hand you the safety scissors instead. That's it, that's the whole idea—and somehow it becomes an ad for nasal spray.
The problem
The setting is craft time in an elementary school classroom. As the teacher hands out metal scissors to the class, one girl is breathing through her open mouth because her nose is blocked. She alone gets singled out as "a bit of a special case" and is given plastic safety scissors instead.
The insight
The idea is that what really hits home isn't the stuffy nose itself, but the humiliation of looking dumb with your mouth hanging open. The ad never explains the symptom—it builds its fear purely out of how you'll look to the people around you.
The idea
The director was Sam Holst of The Sweet Shop. This 30-second skit pairs with a companion piece, "Shoe Laces," turning the inconvenience of a blocked nose into a little comedy sketch. A copywriter who worked on it later looked back and said it was the kind of joke that probably wouldn't fly today—but added that it still won plenty of awards.
What happened
At Cannes Lions 2011, Otrivin's campaign—made up of "Classroom Craft" and "Shoe Laces"—won a Gold Lion in the Film category. It was the first time a Swiss ad agency had won the award since 2001. The campaign also picked up a Wood Pencil at D&AD 2012.
Afterthought
It's an ad for nasal spray, and yet it doesn't lay a finger on nasal symptoms—it goes straight for the gut-punch of "they gave me the kid scissors." That's seriously clever. Showing the embarrassment and explaining nothing: that's the power of subtraction right there.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2011
