You’re no doubt all enjoying the fact that Vanilla Ice is back on our screens, to be honest, I’m loving it! These are exactly the type of ads that are hitting the spot with consumers and Ogilvy have hit it spot on with Vanilla Ice. Vanilla Ice is cool because you don’t ever hear of him that much anymore, he had the hit “Ice, Ice Baby”, but more importantly there seems to be none of the baggage that comes with superstars of today. From what we’re hearing, he’s super chilled and an all round awesome guy, something that some other celebs could learn a thing or two about. Even our local South African ‘celebrities’ who sometimes walk into nightclubs like they are the CEO’s of life.

I’m stoked Vanilla Ice has worked with a Cape Town company and been to Cape Town, and with the quality of the ad’s Ogilvy have put out, I’m suitably impressed. Let’s check the press release that SLXS received:

There is nothing like an international rap star like Vanilla Ice, to bring some tongue in cheek flavour to an already popular beer brand like Castle Lite. The commercial, created for South African Breweries (SAB), emphasises the beer’s new extra cold attribute by aligning it with Vanilla Ice, otherwise known as Robert Matthew Van Winkle, and his number one hit single from the 90’s, ‘Ice Ice Baby’.

The brief to Ogilvy Cape Town was to highlight Castle Lite’s new intrinsic proposition about being ‘extra cold’. The temperature of the product is carefully managed from brewery to bar ensuring a crisp, premium beer. The new Castle Lite products also have thermocromatic ink stickers which appear blue when at their ideal temperature for consumption – extra cold.

The campaign also includes exclusive ice-cold fridges found in premium on-premise outlets across the country; these fridges house the new products ensuring it’s served to its consumers at extreme cold temperatures.

Ogilvy Cape Town and SAB worked with director, Peter Pohorsky of Plank Films, pushing the boundaries in the beer category.

“We needed a creative device to drive home the new product offering of being ice cold – and the classic ‘Ice Ice Baby’ song proved a winner. The first prize became to get Vanilla Ice to be part of the commercial and we were thrilled when he agreed,” says Ogilvy Cape Town Creative Director, Gordon Ray.

“It was imperative to shape an idea that would break through the clutter and stand out – and what a better way to do that than to use a character like Vanilla Ice, to express what the brand is all about – an extra cold lager. The two fitted perfectly, we couldn’t have secured a more suitable collaboration.”

Emma Lundy, head of broadcast at Ogilvy Cape Town contacted his agent and negotiations began. The 90’s rap star is still very active in his performance career doing up to 100 concerts a year. He managed to find a window in his busy schedule and flew down to Cape Town for a few days to shoot the ad in a location in Stellenbosch before his next concert in Dallas. Van Winkel will be returning to the country later this year to perform in Pretoria.

“He was so calm, cool and co-operative on set”, explains Ray. “We designed a blue sequenced outfit which he was more than happy to wear and we shaved his head and eyebrows to create his original look from the 90’s. He was really a pleasure to work with – he’s still got all the moves and the attitude and was eager to do whatever was required, and improvise.”

The lead actor in the ad, Sekoati Tusban of Sewende Laan was one of Vanilla Ice‘s most devoted fans as a young child. Tusban and the rest of the cast were in for a big surprise when Vanilla Ice appeared on set, as they were unaware he would be joining them in the commercial until the day of the shoot.

“It’s amazing what’s possible when we stop, collaborate, and listen,” concludes Ogilvy Cape Town Managing Director, Gavin Levinsohn.

Ha ha, I dig Gavin’s little ending there, classic! It’s refreshing seeing such a fun group of people, because I’m sure most of you have a bad image of celebrities and anyone working in TV, but between Ogilvy Cape Town and Vanilla Ice, they’re just a regular group of people, have an insane amount of fun. I love it! Let’s have a look at the advert, it really is the radness (Copyright Jerry D, 2009):

And a quick behind the scenes look at the making of the advert:

Um…is Cape Town once again proving to be the most awesome place to live in the entire world? I think so!

Well done to Ogilvy on that one, because it’s rare for literally all my friends to be talking about one advert in particular, but they’ve nailed it with this.

Once again going to show that there are some productive people in Cape Town. Ha ha!

*Sean hides behind his magazine, refusing to take questions”