Eoghan Heneghan is an Honours graduate of Arts with Creative Writing in NUIG. He is an aspiring copywriter with a wealth of academic achievement and work experience across diverse employment fields. Active seeking work in the advertising industry, ideally in a challenging and creatively-stimulating environment. Currently employed in the Department of Finance as a policy-writer.
Jameson
Thinking about the brief from TBWA— to develop a responsible drinking campaign that inspires and enables consumers to drink more moderately— I kept coming back to the Irish peer pressure culture around drinking, and how inherently uncool conformism is. This informed the thinking behind the Nah, I’m Grand. campaign, the idea of which was to put an anti-establishment spin on the concept of moderate drinking; to make the refusal to bow to peer pressure seem edgy, alternative, nonconformist, and cool.
The tone of the campaign would be in-keeping with the anti-establishment theme and light-hearted brand image Jameson has cultivated over the years: it would be irreverent, poke fun at itself for being a whiskey company advocating for moderation, but remain uncompromising on the central message— that moderation is cool. It wouldn’t be preachy or puritan… life is for living and should be enjoyed; drinking in moderation can enhance experiences, bring people together, and lead to deeper connections.
Previous ad campaigns would be rolled out again but graffiti’d over with the slogan “NAH, I’M GRAND.” The use of street-art to deface Jameson’s own ads is provocative, nods head to the fact that it is a company that makes profit from the sale of alcohol, while entrenching the brand as countercultural and in touch with the prevailing anti-consumerist mentality of the target demographic. There’s something subversive about a Distiller advocating for its consumers to indulge less in their product. The disruption of traditional Jameson advertising is going to lean into this and encourage people to take pride in drinking how they want, to not give into social coercion, and to take a stand against peer pressure. Jameson is not fixated on money, maximising shareholder value, buying for a dollar and selling for two. The brand stands for experience, for a way of life, and experiences are always enhanced when Jameson is enjoyed in moderation.
Chef
I would consider myself a bit of ketchup connoisseur, and even as a young lad I was struck by the fact that all the brands— except for Chef— were very “same”-ey. While they are all great complements to food, Chef is the only ketchup that actually adds something to a dish. And so, when brainstorming through a campaign idea for the Havas brief, I thought this very simple message should be its core. Chef: Ireland’s tastiest ketchup. The trick would be communicating
this in an arresting way.
The 2015 Marriage Equality and 2018 Repeal the Eight referenda were characterised by mass civic mobilisation, high levels of engagement and debate, and an imaginative use of the public space to set out the arguments on both sides. From there the concept developed: there is a debate dividing Irish society… does Chef Ketchup belong in the fridge or the press? So let’s have a referendum, using all the infrastructure and cliches everyone in Ireland is now intimately familiar,
The radio ads would be political endorsements from both sides. Print ads would mimic the posters you see all over the place in the run-up to an election. “Viva la fridge!” “You buy them from the shelf.” TV ads would be presented as impassioned debates on current affairs shows. E.g.Two campaigners go onto Claire Byrne and argue back and forth. “Freshness for everybody. Vote FRIDGE.” The riposte: “The world’s a cold enough place as is! Vote PRESS.” Claire Byrne
interjects and scolds them for talking over one another. People would be encouraged to use socials to push for their specific belief as was done widespread in the aforementioned referenda.
This would all culminate in the poll going live amid much fanfare and participation. The goal would be to drum up lively discussion over whether ketchup belongs in the fridge or the press, while the question of which ketchup is best remains unposed because there’s only one definitive answer — Chef.
AsIAm
The message of Core’s As I Am brief was that unconscious bias against autistic people exists in the world, it manifests in tangible discrimination, and we need to address this inequity. My campaign idea was Invisible Injustice… discrimination hasn’t gone away, we’ve just gotten better at hiding it. The campaign would make this hidden discrimination blatant through a provocative ad campaign that would force people to open their eyes to social blindspots and understand how they profoundly disadvantage people on the autism spectrum. It would hammer home to all that discrimination does exist still and no matter how “soft” or “hard” it may be, and has no place in an open, tolerant society.
Neurotypical people consciously and subconsciously conform to social norms. The desire to “fit in” is embedded deep within all of our psyches. Adapting to induced behaviour is intrinsically rewarding and leads to social advancement. Behaviour considered socially deviant is often met with expressions of “other-ing” – sidewards glances, scowls, laughter – if not direct admonishment. The societal mores we have all internalised exist in a world built to facilitate the experiences of NT people; the social pressures created are thus a terrible disadvantage to autistic people. NT people are oblivious to the resultant social discrimination and exclusion.
The campaign make would use coarse language reminiscent of more overtly discriminatory societies to show people that autistic people still no not have equal access to employment and education. Autistic people are effectively segregated and the ads would make this segregation concrete and real to the viewers. This would get people talking, thinking about how our unconscious biases effectively segregate autistic people from society, and would issue a call to action through support for AsIAm in its attempts to level the playing field.
