The Robert Dyas ad – a Short Explanation

Robert Dyas, the online/high street “home & garden” store, have released a Christmas-themed video on Youtube that has confused lots of people. Here it is:

Many of the reactions, and shares, are as a result of confusion & bewilderment. For example:

So very weird – Robert Dyas’s completely terrible Christmas ad. How was this allowed?! https://t.co/dX6Ia99Jp0

— Emily Malden (@MaldyEm) December 13, 2015

Is it real? How did it get made? What were they thinking? etc.

The explanation is that the ad is very likely a homage to this lovely ad, which went viral several years ago:

As you can see, the video is very similar. Here’s the first employee intro from each:

• “hi, I’m Richard aka Big Head I work at the Red House and I’m black. I like pumping iron and pumping furniture into people’s homes.”
• “My name’s Marcus. I work at robert dyas and I’m gay. I like going out with my friends and playing volleyball. I also like showing our customers our funky range of christmas gifts.”

So is the Robert Dyas ad a spoof of the original? The answer is no – the original itself was knowingly silly.

Part of the reason the Red House video first went viral was because some didn’t realise it was itself an over-the-top take on bad local ads. The 2 singing guys are Rhett and Link: https://www.rhettandlink.com, https://twitter.com/rhettandlink, who managed to make a series of ads for different companies that consistently went viral, and ended up with their own show “Commercial Kings” (among other successes) as a result. Here’s some more of their work:

And here’s them talking through the process of creating one of their ads:

A few people have asked “why would Robert Dyas parody something most people in the UK won’t have seen?” – again, the answer is it’s not a parody. If it is indeed inspired by the original Rhett & Link ad, it is a nice homage to it rather than a parody. Both the original, and the Robert Dyas video gain many shares initially because they appear to be real & quite shocking at first viewing.

Aside from social shares, the ‘ad’ has instantly gained a huge amount of news coverage. And, while it’s being referred to as an ad, it did not need an associated media budget to reach its audience.

Brilliant Robert Dyas ‘ad’ coverage. PR is eating advertising this year. pic.twitter.com/IyaQ5de0kC

— Hamish Thompson (@HamishMThompson) December 13, 2015

 

It will be interesting to hear the Robert Dyas team themselves talk about it, and its results. Here’s an article talking about some of the results of the Red House ad: https://www.furnituretoday.com/article/418172-red-house-furniture-goes-viral

Summary:

• The Robert Dyas ad is most likely a homage of a parody; or at least of something that was itself knowingly silly.
• It’s a lovely example of a deliberately viral video that does not initially appear to be designed to go viral.
• I suppose you could argue that it’s fairly cynical, to be exploiting issues around sexuality in order to sell products. We prefer to think, as with the Rhett & Link video, it has a nice positive message, as well as being openly commercial.