A man takes a swig of coffee from a convenience store cup as he pumps gas into his car. Suddenly this mundane slice of life is disrupted by surreal nirvana as a lovely voice beckons to him, “Hello there.”
He turns and says “hi,” seeing before him a vision of loveliness–a princess who is accompanied by a white horse.
Behind her are idyllic mountains, part of a rural Shangri-La setting that is an 180-degree departure from a gas station.
“Isn’t this Farmhouse Blend Coffee the most amazing thing ever?” she asks, drinking her own cup of joe.
“Yeah,” he says in disbelief.
“And it’s only 99 cents, any size,” she adds.
But all good things must come to an end as a jarring jolt of reality can be heard in the form of a gruff male voice which orders the princess to “get in the truck. The kid’s party starts in 10 minutes.”
We then see the source of that command, a crude looking guy dressed in tights, looking like a costumed reject from a medieval renaissance faire. He too is gassing up his van which is full of inflated party balloons and has a U-Haul-type pony trailer attached.
“I’m coming, Frank,” shouts the princess who now sounds much more like a commoner. “Looks like we’re out of here.”
A voiceover intervenes, “You’re not dreaming. Cumberland Farms’ Farmhouse Blend really is that delicious and it’s only 99 cents, any size.”
Titled “Princess,” the spot is one of two in a campaign for convenience store/gas station Cumberland Farms, directed by Benjamin Blank of Locksmith Content, Los Angeles, for Full Contact Advertising, Boston.
TV hiatus The television campaign, which just launched in the Northeast, is Cumberland Farms’ first in more than 15 years. Since Full Contact Advertising’s initial efforts back in 2008, Cumberland Farms’ coffee sales have grown 60 percent. Now the store chain is looking to take a greater share from the big coffee competitors with a campaign creative premise that Farmhouse Blend is almost too good to be true–great tasting coffee at a pittance of a price.
In the other alluded to TV commercial, “Heaven,” a woman is so enraptured by Farmhouse Blend’s taste that she’s convinced she’s having a divine intervention-like experience while seated behind the wheel of her car, stuck in traffic. In the distance, she sees an apparition and hears the sound of harp music as if being strummed by angels. Coming closer and closer is what looks like an other-worldly being, the outline of which we can barely discern through a plume of white smoke. But when the apparition comes into full view, out of the so-called “clouds,” we discover it’s merely a construction worker holding two large orange traffic cones.
“Nothing to worry about ma’am–just a busted steam pipe,” he bellows.
Still she can find solace in the fact that her cup of Farmhouse Blend tastes divine at an affordable price.
The campaign is aimed at busy suburban on-the-go customers who will be interested to know that they can get a great cup of coffee at a great price at the same place they will likely visit during the week for gas, milk, lottery tickets and other items.
Agency pedigree
Full Contact was founded five years ago by Marty Donohue and Tim Foley, former creative directors at Hill Holliday, Boston, who worked on many high-profile spots for that ad shop (like the famous Budweiser Clydesdale Super Bowl ad at Ground Zero post 9/11, as well as efforts for Dunkin’ Donuts, one of those alluded to coffee competitors to Cumberland Farms). John Young, another Full Contact founder, is known for starting digital ad agency Tribal DDB at a time when such a digital endeavor was hardly mainstream.
The Full Contact team on the Cumberland campaign included creative director/art director Foley, creative director/copywriter Donohue, and producer Scott Doggett.
The DP on both commercials was David Lanzenberg. Editor was Peter Barstis of Edit Bar, Boston.
