licence to kill?

Have you seen the Homepride cooking sauces ad yet? If not, take a look. It uses the iconic Fred character - 50 this year don’t you know?! As I remember Fred he was a charming, helpful, friendly chap that knew his grades of flour. And, voiced in ads by the homely sounding Richard Briers (sadly no longer with us)... now that tells you something about his character.



So, back to the ad that aired for the first time over the weekend. It shows a giant Fred - not the small iconic character that we all remember - helping Mum in the kitchen to add a bit of cook in sauce excitement to dishes for the family to enjoy. Nothing particularly wrong with that - except for the fact he’s so huge and a bit wobbly on his feet.

The real trouble comes at the end, when Dad discovers that Fred is taking that excitement a little too far. He is seen in the bathroom with Mum in the bath, readying himself to scrub her back. Now, whilst I think the idea is somewhat tacky (and a little pervy), I can see it might give way to a Carry On style of humour.

But the problem is this: for the past 18 months we’ve been using social media (Facebook & Twitter) to nurture Homepride Flour and its Fred character into that charming, helpful, knowledgeable and lovable being that we want to project for the brand - licensed to Kerry Foods and not strictly owned outright by Premier Foods, who owns Homepride cooking sauce.

So, having nurtured Fred and his character to promote Homepride Flour, we now have the cooking sauces side of the business building a character that has quite a different take on charm and lovability. And particularly with heritage brands that have been off the radar for a few years, they still have emotional values attached. So it’s vital that they are understood and re-presented to a modern audience in a way that retains integrity.

To me, the take on Fred from the sauces side has dangerously ignored what Fred has always stood for and his personality. And all for a cheap laugh.