ASIA-PACIFIC, MAY 6, 2013 – On May 15, Ogilvy & Mather China is taking home a Bronze Clio for its campaign for a prime real-estate development in Beijing disproving copycats by bringing to light the story of ‘Abo’, a monkey apparently fired into space by the Chinese long before the Americans’ Albert II in 1948.
In an effort to provoke discussion about progressive creativity, SOHO China and Ogilvy & Mather got some buzz going for real estate advertising (normally regarded as a "dull" area by creatives) by claiming that it was China, not America, that was first to send a monkey out to space.
Black-and-white footage of Abo as a little monkey training for the experimental assignment surfaced and built on the story that the reason no one knows about the whole thing is that the mission was seen to have failed because contact with the spacecraft was lost after it took off. To save face, the Chinese just denied the whole mission.
66 years later, Abo (thought of as a gonner) causes a commotion when he decided to come home because of the regression in China and finds a horrifying copying issue overcoming creativity in the country.
He was beamed back to Beijing, caught by Soho Galaxy’s CCTV, and the building opens to a flock of police and press from around the world clamoring for an interview with the Mandarin-speaking Abo. Two days later, a worldwide exclusive interview was staged inside the colossal development where he talked about everything from his training to China’s current lack of strong creative mindset.
The campaign was a retaliation against plagiarism, which seems to be prevalent in China. "Not often can you get a monkey asking provoking questions of a nation on TV in a live 30-minute debate and all for a real estate developer. More than, it has given a lot of local Chinese creatives hope. Funnily enough more so than our Coke Hands iconic poster," shares Graham Fink, chief creative officer of Ogilvy China. "Simply because SOHO China represents a real, big, local, brand that has been recognized on the international stage."
