One evening, a bit over a year ago, I popped into my local supermarket. It’s a small Sainsbury’s at the end of the road: nothing fancy, great for the essentials. It was there, in the pasta section, that I read something on the side of a box and thought: wow.
This is what I read:
The line that stopped me was the second: Grudgingly approved by Italian grandmothers. Why did I like it? Well, way back before the invention of the wheel, I started my career as a copywriter and let me assure you, you’d sell your own grandmother — Italian or not — for a line like that. It’s so good, you’d probably sell both of them.
This newsletter is the first part of a two-parter. Today I’m going to look at why it works; next week, some thoughts on why Rana chose to go not with that line but, curiously, the first tagline, Live life generously1.
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Grudgingly approved by Italian grandmothers. Why so good?
First off, in just five words it takes the classic challenger standpoint:
Who’s the best at doing what you do?
…Italian grandmothers.
How can we show they’re rattled?
…By saying they approve of us.
How do we really give it some oomph?
…Make their approval reluctant — they grudgingly approval it.
So, strategically it’s on-point. The mention of grandmothers also extends out the theme of family (La Famiglia Rana, the full brand name, means The Rana Family).
Creatively, I think there are two reasons why it works.
First off, humour frequently works by referring to a norm and subverting it. The norm here is: Italian grandmothers are amazing pasta cooks. The subversion is: But even *they* were impressed.
This ad (below) is a great example of this technique at work — it’s a poster for London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, produced in 1988.
The V&A — as it’s universally known — is a figurehead of the British establishment: a grand, historic museum filled with historical treasures and artefacts. So what did Saatchi & Saatchi, their ad agency, do? They flipped this norm on its head, using the tagline An ace caff with quite a nice museum attached. This is not how a museum curator would speak, but definitely how a London taxi-driver might speak2.
The second reason the Rana line works is precision. One of the characteristics of humour is that it is specific. And, when done well, the more specific a humorous utterance is, the more memorable it becomes.
I don’t often mention comedians in this newsletter — and deliberately so: brands are not stand-ups and, too often, there is confusion between comic genres and humour. But on this subject, Victoria Wood comes to mind. Possibly the late great comedian’s best-known song is The Ballad of Barry and Freda — a song about a suburban couple discussing sex. Freda wants it; Barry doesn’t. In the last verse the wife, in desperation at her reluctant husband, pleads, “Beat me on the bottom with a Woman’s Weekly.”
Does this get a laugh? It gets a massive laugh. Just go to 5:02 in this video and you’ll hear it. In fact, watch the whole thing: it’s brilliant.
Precision gives Wood, the song, and the joke immediate cut-through. Well done her; well done Woman’s Weekly.
Grudgingly approved by Italians would have been tepid. Grudgingly approved by Italian grandmothers — that’s specific.
And yet, as I mentioned above, Rana chose Live life generously over this line. Next week, I’ll look into possible reasons why.
Many thanks for reading,
Buon appetito,
Paddy
Book a free meeting with me here / www.studiogilmore.com / pg@studiogilmore.com / +44 7866 538 233 / Twitter: @mrpaddygilmore
To clarify: Rana changed their brand tagline in March of last year, to Italy’s Best Kept Secret. But I think it’s still worth looking into these taglines a) because one is so outstanding and b) they tap into issues around brand purpose which, if you’ve spent half an hour in marketing, or 3.76 seconds on LinkedIn, is never far from the conversation.
Non-British readers: Caff is London slang for café.