CTFM Babysitter Campaign

Cape Town Fish Market, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it. I appreciate a good “fancy” chain restaurant: they make a super effort on the service, only over-charge slightly and they’re generally consistent. In Cape Town, where you normally have to coax your sulky, fringed waitress off her phone to beg for a glass of wine it’s a damn godsend.

For some reason they’ve decided to ruin my lovely relationship with them by campaigning to get kids in the restaurant. Urgh, children. Nonetheless it’s actually quite an awesome campaign.

They’ve decided to play on the fear that many parents have about leaving their children with their “who knows what the babysitter is up to?” campaign. They know that most parents don’t like leaving their little precious’s with anyone, let alone someone they don’t know. In their minds sweet 14year old nieces looking for pocket money morph into demonic sex-crazed drug fiends the second they walk out the door. Instead of soothing their irrational fears the manipulative geniuses at Lowe agency Cape Town have decided to play on that fear to advertise their kids menu, mwahahahahaha!

They’ve released 6 print ads of varying degrees of originality. They’ve gone for some easy jabs: the babysitter having sexytimes, and going through your undie draw but they also have some real gems- my personal best being the one featuring a toddler playing with an Ouija board. The art direction is great, they’re all set in dimly lit rooms with definite mood lighting, they never show the evil babysitters faces but rather show the innocent children creating an interesting contrast. The contrast is apparent again with the juxtaposition of the playful font saying “who knows what the babysitter is up to?”

I love that the mood that they’ve gone for is teasing and playful rather than shocking scare tactics. Parents are well aware that when it comes to their child they’re a bit crazy, and for the most part they’re okay with it.

This isn’t the first time that Lowe and CTFM have paired up to do great work. They claim that their ideas behind their good work come from wanting to have fun with the brand. I feel that this campaign perfectly displays that, it is lighthearted, it has mild conflict but for the most part it’s just funny.