Master MacDonald and Lapointe d’Untenable for Desjardins Assurances, mother Isabelle of The eye of the storm and Telus’ connected home security system, Rogatien promotes Intact Insurance discounts and François from Conversations with my parents insists with his father in the car for the SAAQ: Our TV characters sneak into advertising.
It’s hard not to smile when you see Léo MacDonald, the star lawyer of the series “Indefensible,” drinking salsa straight from the pot and plucking his eyebrows in his car because he’s in those confident places of Desjardins Assurances (whose slogan is “In… a space where you can be yourself”).
We also laugh when François Morency’s father explains to his son in detail why he is too tired to drive in the SAAQ’s preventive advertising against fatigue while driving. Just like Ti-Mé from La petite vie invites us to recycle in Recyc Québec ads.
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Attachment to characters
Part of the reason the trend of using characters from television shows in advertising seems to work so well is because these characters are defined, known and loved by viewers.
If we look at the daily newspaper Indefensible and the advertising shows the characters Léo or André, it becomes less intrusive. “We stay in the universe of the series, which leads to a smaller break. “This is a slightly more favorable terrain to get the message across,” said Bernard Motulsky, a professor in the department of social and public communication at UQAM.
For him you need typical characters with whom you are connected in order to be able to assign precise values to them. The effectiveness depends on the type of character we have chosen and the idea that it fits well with the message.
Masters MacDonald and Lapointe thus inspire self-confidence, strength and righteousness. Isabelle from “L’oeil du cyclone” represents the warmth and protection of the mother, while François and his family from “Discussions with parents” manage to convey messages of prevention through their comical discussions.
A sign that a campaign is working? The concept returns with other characters from the series or with the same character in a new situation.
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Reduce risks
For Luc Dupont, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Department of Communication, the idea of using a character reduces certain risks that come with being associated with a celebrity.
“Advertising is much riskier in 2023 and brands are more cautious about hiring personalities who might, for example, make clumsy statements. We find ourselves in a more exposed environment than ever before, as social media and public opinion are often unstable,” he explains.
In his opinion, a good strategy is to go through popular culture, through these characters that we already love.
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In this sense, well-known actors have a great interest in conveying a message that does not contradict their own values. Knowing that Christine Beaulieu is an environmentalist, it makes sense to find her in an ad for a connected home security system rather than an ad for a gasoline car. Here the values inherent in the actress merge with those of her character Isabelle.
However, Rogatien, the famous taxi driver played by Patrick Huard, may be an exception; He is larger than life and can allow himself to say almost anything to sell us assurances without us blaming the actor behind it.
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