Prostate Cancer UK has launched a spoof betting campaign with newly created agency Holmes Hobbs Marcantonio, with the aim of promoting the fact that one in eight men will develop the disease.
The campaign, which stars John Culshaw taking on the personas of Harry Redknapp, John McCririck and Tiziano Crudeli, will air on terrestrial and satellite sporting channels until the end of January.
Marcantonio discusses the problems of creating a parody campaign: “This is very difficult, you have to get the permission of both the advertiser and the personality. However, all our personalities were happy to be parodied as they were keen to play a part in helping crack the disease.
“I cannot remember a 'living' personality ever allowing themselves to be impersonated in an ad before.”
Marcantonio was also responsible for the first ever ad to spoof another advertiser back in 1984, when the Cadbury's Milk Tray man had a bit of trouble delivering Heineken.
Seamus O'Farrell of Prostate Cancer UK commented. "It is all too rare nowadays to find creative talent that mixes verve, wisdom and an obsessive desire to deliver against a client’s objectives and timescales.
The ground-breaking work that Holmes Hobbs Marcantonio has created for Prostate Cancer UK is possibly the freshest work for any charity in the UK today.”
Holmes Hobbs Marcantonio also created the Bill Bailey ‘sledgehammer’ ad for the charity.