Hiscox has launched its latest campaign illustrating copyright mistakes.
The campaign which is part of the insurance firm’s creative platform ‘Most Disastrous Campaign Ever’, uses the copyright of three UK brands: Specsavers, Weetabix, and Cillit Bang to illustrate the mistakes it insures.
Hiscox’s out-of-home billboards appear to be adverts from Specsavers, Weetabix, and Cillit Bang but on closer inspection show themselves to be insurance adverts warning its audience about the dangers of copyright infringement.
The campaign is part of a two-year partnership between the insurance firm and creative studio Uncommon.
Uncommon co-founder Nils Leonard said: “At a time when lots of people are playing with their own logos, we thought we’d play with everyone else’s. Long-running ideas with such a clear and disruptive format are rare to find, and a mark of this campaigns’ power is a moment when even other brands are happy to play a role.
“Disaster as a creative idea for Hiscox may have started in a B2B world but it’s now disrupting pop culture in unignorable ways, we are grateful and proud of our partnership with the brilliant team at Hiscox and the excellent brand partners that agreed to play a part.”
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest agency-related news sent straight to your inbox each morning
One poster takes the Specsavers tagline “You should’ve gone to Specsavers” and turns it into “You should’ve gone to Hiscox”.
Another reads “Have you had your Hiscox?”
The firm also takes Cillit Bang’s tagline “BANG! And the dirt is gone” and rewords it to “BANG! And Hiscox could help protect you.”
This follows on from previous campaigns which have had radio adverts recorded in the wrong language, posters with numerous typos and a blank Metro cover wrap after a seemingly missed deadline.
Hiscox UK chief marketing officer Fiona Mayo said: “While this ad is playful in nature, the risk of accidentally infringing copyright is a very real one that many of our customers face as they go about their business. We’re grateful to Specsavers, Weetabix and Cillit Bang for their help in bringing this danger to life in such a striking way.
“Copyright infringement is a particularly thorny area for our customers in marketing, media and creative industries, where assets that might feature in their work for clients like music or photography, are often protected. But it doesn’t stop there; from software codes and databases to sculptures and architecture, the risk of infringing copyright exists in most sectors and this campaign is just one way of illustrating this.”
