Slashdot on Polish Advertising

Heh... This is one thing I didn't expect to find on the internets today - slashdot crowd discussing a classic Polish advertisement campaign. They just briefly mention it, and I wouldn't normally care - but I remember that ad! It was one of those things that got burned into your mind due to repetition, endless spoofs, parodies and jokes.

The and was based on a pun - in Polish, the word meaning "to wash" can also mean "to fight" (allright, don't give me any wierd looks, it makes perfect sense if you think about it! Think of washing something in a river or a stream - I think this is the entymological origin of that canotation). And it so happened that a famous epic novel happened to that word in one of it's more memorable one-liners. It was a perfect set up - tie the famous quote with your product and unleash it on unsuspecting audiences.

One should also add that the advertisement iself was spectacularly bad. The punchline was delivered while grinning into the camera and brandishing the box of the washing powder. But, that only reinforced the superimposition between the epic setting, and corny comercialism. It was short, it was clever and it was catchy! It ruled. It also got real old, real quick but that's a whole another story.

Tags: advertising, slashdot, poland, polish advertising, polena 2000, polena 2000 add