Create popular // Swinton.
Creating work that’s popular is key for a creative.
Ideas that gain a life of their own out in the real, non-industry, world.
‘Turn Nagging Doubt into Nothing-To-Worry About’ for Swinton Insurance had that success.
And key elements were crafted to help it happen.
We wrote the strapline to mirror the classic style straplines used to have with a rhythm that made it catchy.
The research and design of ‘Nagging Doubt’ himself was another massive part. How scary, odd, evil, weird or unpleasant to make him. Multiple designs and the skills of Hollywood SFX God Bob Kurtzman came into play over months of fine-tuning.
One meeting became a half argument about whether it should have a belly button or not.
The speed of impact surprised us, the day after launch we had people ringing up the agency to tell us their dogs, cats, hamsters were doppelgängers for Nagging Doubt. They must have spent time hunting down who’d made the ad before getting in touch, not something our front of house team were prepped for.
Within weeks unofficial ‘merch’ appeared on eBay. A cottage-industry crafting stuffed toy versions of the character. They’d even invented new characters themselves, Mrs Nagging Doubt and Baby Nagging Doubt. Some were selling for over £70.
You might ask who was daft enough to buy them. I’ve one of each.
The campaign was more short-lived than we’d planned, for reasons outside of marketing. Which meant it didn’t enter popular culture as much as it could have.
Though I could see how easily it would, just imagine the front cover of The Sun with Prime Minister Cameron/May/Johnson/Truss/Sunak’s face comped onto Nagging Doubt.
