MEDIA-I: Saatchi viral ads help Next shed paparazzi image

TAIPEI: Saatchi & Saatchi Taiwan will launch an online viral

campaign for Next Magazine in an effort to clean up the paparazzi

image.

The aggressive roll-out of Next Magazine and its paparazzi image has

resulted in the title's editors becoming fixtures on talk shows debating

privacy and journalistic ethics. The campaign features a Flash clip,

where the magazine's canine mascot chases a doggy 'Generalissimo' who

has snatched its camera. The duo leapfrog across a landscape of bamboo,

until finally the pursued turns and tosses out a challenge. "You call

yourself a paparazzi?" he asks. Then comes a prompt: How should the

paparazzi retrieve its camera?

What follows is a humorous plug of the paparazzi's virtues.

The campaign is at http://dev.atnext.com/TW/. Yew Peng Soh, director of

interactive marketing, Saatchi & Saatchi Taiwan, said, "The campaign was

ready for the magazine's launch but we thought it might be too many

messages at one time. What we are doing is educating people, telling

them that there's more to being a paparazzi than zipping around on a

motorcycle with a camera slung over the shoulder. This, and subsequent

animations, show him as quick and resourceful, as both hero and

underdog."