ADWATCH: McDonald's spends way to the top with dog and sauce blitz

In Media's second AdWatch survey conducted in Hong Kong, McDonald's was once again the city's most memorable television commercial, registering in 95 per cent of the minds of Hong Kongers who were polled.

The hamburger chain continues to dominate, delivering on average a new round of TVCs every two weeks. During this recall, 'Challenge' - alerting the public of new dipping sauces for Chicken McNuggets, and 'The Dog' - promoting the latest sales of a stuffed dog - were aired.

According to Canace Lin, account manager at DDB, McDonald's aired 60 TVCs in 2002 - 30 each in Chinese and English.

Not surprisingly, McDonald's is also the city's biggest spender on advertising, posting a whopping HK$199 million (US$26 million) for the first half of 2002, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Procter & Gamble's Rejoice shampoo was the second most memorable TVC with its 'Sinkboy' ads, featuring a guy who goes around washing people's hair on the street. Created by Leo Burnett, the company rotated three different versions of the TVC with 'Hat', 'Wishing Well' and 'Sink'.

While big name brands like McDonald's, Cathay Pacific, Johnson & Johnson, Caltex, PCCW and HSBC made the top 20, the advertising field is still heavily dominated by local brands, many of whom still choose to produce their TVCs in-house.

This is strongly reflected in the fact that while Hong Kong is widely regarded as a bilingual city, most advertisers are still focusing on the Chinese language market.

Food items, cosmetics, personal hygiene products and beauty aids are still the most sought after products by Hong Kong consumers.