ABOUT

In 2014, approaching Christmas time, we were briefed to get into the festive spirit and spread some holiday cheer with Comedy Central’s first billboard in South Africa.
We decided to split the campaign into two phases: a provocative message that’ll start social media engagement, followed by a push to tune in and watch the latest show on Comedy Central.

One billboard with the message “Santa isn’t real - cheer up with Comedy central” created the initial buzz. Immediately after that, word started spreading in newspapers (where they even called us liars – LOL), on Facebook and on Twitter, where it also became a meme. Even CNN’s Chris Cuomo had something to say from overseas.
But all good things have to come to an end. After just four days, we were told to stop making little children (and their moms) upset, and we were forced to pull it down, so we put up a new billboard with the message to tune in to watch the new show “Anger Management” on Comedy Central.

In 2016, after two years, the biggest reward is still seeing the Santa billboard show up at the top of the results page of Google images when you simply search “Comedy Central billboard”.

Agency: OgilvyOne Johannesburg
Client: Comedy Central
Copywriter: Tiffany Morris
Art Director: Thandolwethu Silimela, Michele De Iuliis