Picture the ad agency meeting. It’s 1983. Australian wines have yet to make their breakthrough in the UK. Client and Creative Director are trying to find a way into this lucrative market through a penetrating TV campaign:
Creative Director: “Look, no one is going to drink Australian wine here. We need to give it a French Name”
Client: “Brilliant”
Creative Director: “And then we need provenance so we’ll have a wine snob – you know the type, some old duffer with a plum in his mouth – ordering the wine in a restaurant”
Client: “Fantastic”
Creative Director: “No, it’s not enough. We need heritage. We’ll have him utter something about ’62 consecutive vintages’ – that’s right isn’t it?
Client: “Well, yes but it doesn’t really mean anyth…”
Creative Director: “Shuddup! This is genius at work.. we need a pay off. OH MY GOD! It’s been staring me in the face – we’ll get Manuel from Faulty Towers to be the waiter. Manuel doesn’t understand a word the wine snob is saying so he goes into the kitchen and, wait for it…. comes back with a Car Door.”
Client: “Er…”
Creative Director: “Don’t you see? The man orders Carte D’or and the waiter comes back with a “Car Door”!”
Client: “I love you.”
