How the nation got its dream president
With the introduction of the direct election of the president, a virtually endless debate opened up in the Czech Republic on the topic of who citizens would imagine as the ideal inhabitant of Prague Castle. The names of popular personalities are more frequently mentioned than those of experienced politicians - Marek Eben, Jaromír Jágr or, at least until his death, Karel Gott, the father of Czech popular music. The company Karlovarské minerální vody (Karlovy Vary Mineral Waters) served people a taste of how the multiple winner of Zlatý slavík (Golden Nightingale) would have fared in the role of president back in 2011. The company joined forces with him in an advertising campaign promoting the new Aquila Team flavoured iced teas, which happen to be the new president's favourite drink. He even stands by their quality so much that he refuses to remove the bottle from the lectern where he is to deliver his speech to the nation. To the objection that the whole thing might be an advertisement, the Master replies, "Advertisement? I hope not." This is an allusion to the rather stubborn attitude with which Gott refused to participate in television commercials for many years. With a few specific exceptions, he only appeared in front of the cameras in this role after he turned 70. The company's costly investment (the fee is estimated to be in excess of CZK 10 million) reportedly paid off, and not long after the campaign was launched, Karlovarské minerální vody praised the improvement in sales. And what did the Master himself say? "I have tasted the tea and believe me, it is delicious cold. I also had the space to play a bit. You know, when I don't get any roles in films, I just have to take the ads." This is evidenced by the fact that he then appeared in several commercials before his death in 2019 - for example, in campaigns for ŠKODA AUTO or the Austrian rail carrier ÖBB.
Video: Aquila Team – President Karel Gott
How a prague cop saved czech pub culture
Popular actor Hynek Čermák repeatedly complains that he suffers from typecasting syndrome. Simply put, this is a phenomenon whereby actors are cast in the same roles over and over again, specifically in Čermák's case as detectives, police officers and investigators of all kinds. There is no doubt that he is very successful in these roles, but after he started his cooperation with Staropramen brewery, he could finally try a much less "official" role. He's been appearing in the brewery's commercials since 2018, playing himself - a guy who lives in Prague's Smíchov district and likes to go out for a beer with friends. The main intention of the campaign creators was to popularise the beer culture of Smíchov, which is why all the spots with Čermák repeatedly emphasise the celebration of ordinary life and the fact that the pub functions as a specific community. Staropramen has been repeating this narrative in its campaigns ever since, and even breathed new life into it during the covid-19 pandemic, when it once again sided with Čermák on the side of Czech pubs and tried to drive former guests into places that had been forced by the pandemic to change their habits. The pubs were in an existential crisis and Staropramen was also suffering from declining sales, so he decided to fully fit Hynek Čermák into a completely new role - the saviour of domestic pub culture.
Video: Staropramen – They always stick together (Vždycky drží spolu)
How the king of wallachia elevated pâté to a national heritage
Hamé considers its pâtés to be part of the Czech national heritage and its advertisement with the subtitle Golden Heritage from the beginning of the century can be considered an essential part of the golden fund of domestic advertising. This is to some extent due to the fact that in its time it fully exploited the potential of the synergy with the cinema industry. Thus, in 2002, the folk millionaire Bohuš Stejskal from Věra Chytilová's film Dědictví (Inheritance) with the subtitle Kurvahošigutntag, played by Bolek Polívka, appeared on television screens. Hamé soon discovered that variations on this light-hearted theme worked very well for them, and Polívka became the official face of Májka and other durable products for years to come. The company even revisited the Wallachian king more than a decade later, launching a new spot starring his real-life grandson Kryštof alongside Polívka. In all its versions, Golden Legacy stands out for a certain lightness and accessibility that makes the spot very easy to remember - a fact that is enhanced by Bolek Polívka's specific charisma. As in his case, you will either love the ad a priori or hate it from the bottom of your soul. But it will definitely stick in your mind. But after a brief comeback in 2013, Hamé gave Bolek the boot again. This time because he wanted to target young consumers with the speculative message that eating pâté was not incompatible with the idea of a healthy lifestyle. For the campaign, a number of top athletes, including biathletes Gabriela Koukalová and Ondřej Moravec, were involved. This is a big shift from Bolek Polívka, but one that doesn't need to sink into the mind, as his name is what most people spontaneously think of in connection with Hamé anyway.
Video: Hamé – Golden Heritage (Zlaté dědictví)
How the hockey legend proved that no dream is impossible
The legendary Jaromír Jágr is probably the best Czech hockey player in history, but he is also a savvy businessman who has no problem identifying a profitable business opportunity and making the most of it. And given that he is aware of the public interest his name arouses, it is no wonder that he has been very actively associated with various brands since 1994. Throughout the 1990s, these were more light-hearted collaborations like a spot for BubbleTape "endless" gum or Olpran bicycles. The real opportunity came when Jágr was hired by PPF Holding in 2011 to help breathe new life into the failing lottery giant SAZKA. The Czech hockey legend literally entered the advertising big leagues and further collaborations did not take long to come. At the same time, they proved potentially problematic. This is also true of the cooperation with the Chinese technology company, which Jágr has been associated with since 2016. Although the spots are mostly intended to promote sales of Huawei mobile phones, they have a transcending narrative - Jágr usually urges viewers to never give up in life and not to give up on their dreams. Thus, they use Jagr more as a kind of mentor figure who has a life story worth following. At the time, it was a kind of effort by the company to bring its products closer to local consumers by making the most effective use of the local context - in addition to Jagr, footballer Robert Lewandowski also worked on the campaign. However, Huawei has experienced significant turbulence since 2016 related to the geopolitical situation and has been blacklisted in many markets due to political decisions. This also casts some doubt on Jagr's involvement, who is also reminded of another advertising episode - in which he became the face of the company Vodňanské kuře, which is part of the Agrofert holding of former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO). Despite these controversies, the star hockey player cannot be expected to disappear from TV screens for good.
Video: Huawei – We write our own biggest stories (Ty největší příběhy si píšeme sami)
How a funky party boy found the recipe for a proper New Year's Eve party
Until 2019, Prostějov's U Zeleného stromu distillery had no experience with cooperation with a public figure. This changed before New Year's Eve 2019, when the company decided to actively promote the strength of its Haná vodka brand. And with the time for lavish New Year's celebrations approaching at rocket speed, the liqueur decided to educate, with the participation of one of the Czech Republic's most prolific partygoers. It wasn't long before the company was throwing its own party, hosted by Matěj Ruppert, frontman of the funky band Monkey Business. He used all his talents in the spot - he not only sang, but also danced and mixed several party drinks, the main ingredient of which was, unsurprisingly, Hanácká vodka. "As a lot of people know, vodka is one of my favourite drinks. At one time they even mixed vodka and juice in a bar using my recipe. Moreover, I consider myself a patriot and I am happy to be associated with a traditional Czech brand. That's why I gladly accepted the offer to collaborate on the campaign for Hanácká vodka. I also liked to dance again after a while," Ruppert praised his performance in the commercial. However, evil tongues argued that the proclaimed education was only a purposeful cover, that the ad actually gave the impression that alcohol consumption was beneficial and even suggested that social success could only be achieved thanks to alcohol. The situation escalated to a meeting of the Broadcasting Council, which brushed all the accusations off the table and allowed the 'Ruppert party' to return to the television screen. It didn't take long for this to happen again - on the occasion of the World Hockey Championship, when vodka also plays a key role for many consumers in celebrating the Czech team's success.
Video: Hanácká vodka – Pure Dance Spirit
How a national carrier stole a protagonist from a mobile operator
The covid-19 pandemic wasn't necessarily a negative experience - in an accelerated world, it represented a kind of handbrake that, perhaps paradoxically, proved to people after a long time that life doesn't just happen in virtual worlds and cities. The national carrier Czech Railways has even built its completely new marketing identity on this aspect of a kind of return to nature in 2020, enlisting the help of the most competent guy for this job. After a number of years of humorous commercials, the theatre and film actor and director Ivan Trojan has ended his cooperation with the mobile operator T-Mobile and has become, after his colleague Ondřej Vetecký, the new ambassador of the state-owned company whose reliability (or unreliability) often drives passengers literally crazy. The whole campaign began surprisingly intimate and serious for Trojan's standards, given his history at T-Mobile. In the original spots from 2020, he simply goes on a backpacking trip or brags about how he manages to get a lot of things done while traveling by train to work. With the pandemic fading, however, ČD decided to let loose a bit and give Trojan the space to make the most of his acting potential. Czech Railways' more recent commercials are not unlike the ones Trojan created for T-Mobile. The actor appears in them in various roles, mostly as strange comic characters, and gets into very absurd situations. At one point he sings opera in a dining car, at another time he tries to stick to a group of Japanese people as a backwoodsman in order to save on group fare. One of his latest creations also belongs to the same family, when he presents the most modern trains of the Czech Railways as a “koloťuk” (“wheelman”) and does not forget to cram several words from railway jargon into every sentence. And let's not forget his trip to Hungary, which in some ways brings to mind the banned T-Mobile Christmas ad with a Polish huckster. Ivan Trojan has never been afraid of controversy, otherwise he might have thought more carefully about his association with ČD.
Video: České dráhy – Koloťuk
How marketing gold turned into sour grapes
And now an ad that hasn't aged well due to social events. The electricity and gas supplier Bohemia Energy claimed for so long that it was not playing its clients until the energy crisis of 2021 showed that it was actually one big show. However, when the company launched a campaign in 2018 called "We're not playing you", it was, at least from a marketing point of view, a very successful venture, suggesting that the humdrum business of energy distribution could be approached in an interesting and humorous way. The protagonists of the campaign - actors Pavel Liška and Marek Daniel, who returned to the role of the unscrupulous lobbyist Tonda Blaník for Bohemia Energy - undoubtedly had a lot to do with it. In many of the spots created by the duo, the same scenario is repeated over and over again - Daniel is a disgruntled director who is trying to make an ad, but it just doesn't work well with Liška, a very unemotional actor. So their efforts mostly end up in improvisation, and the whole presentation is unsurprisingly pretty stiff. It was actually a bit of a commercial within a commercial, breaking down the fourth wall between what's happening on set and the audience themselves. The charisma of the two involved made it work very well, and if it weren't for the company's collapse, it would still work today. But the aforementioned bankruptcy has thrown the actors themselves into an unenviable situation. Pavel Liška has repeatedly apologised publicly for his cooperation with Bohemia Energy. "Today we know that the whole thing went very badly wrong. It will affect a lot of people's lives. But for me, I have the added stigma of having been in those spots. Even though I'm standing outside of Bohemia Energy, I know that for a lot of people I simply stay connected to them and relate to their sh*t. And so the disappointment, anger, resentment and dislike people feel towards Marek and I now. There's nothing we can do about it. I'm so sorry and I hereby apologise to everyone who feels hurt," the actor and comedian lamented. The entire campaign started with a strong statement that "we are refunding the overpayments". But the social debt that society has created by its irresponsible management will never be repaid. But the stigma attached to Liška and Daniel will hopefully fade quickly.
Video: Bohemia Energy – We're not playing you (Nic na vás nehrajeme)
How a gardener with a walrus moustache spoke in the voice of a renowned actress
It's not always the case that you have to be seen to put your own imprint on a TV ad. Sometimes you just need to be heard - and if one of the most recognisable voices on the domestic cultural scene belongs to you, you've effortlessly won. In this way, actress Jiřina Bohdalová has etched herself in the memory of many viewers who have associated her name with garden technology retailer Mountfield since the 1990s, even though she has appeared in the company's commercials rather sporadically. Bohdalová lent her voice to the company's mascot Béďa Trávníček for the first time in 1995, when Mountfield first introduced Béďa to the public. From the very beginning, he has been inseparably linked with the so-called Wheel of Fortune, which was a masterstroke by Mountfield to differentiate itself from its competitors. This energetic gardener, whose walrus moustache evokes the actor Pavel Zedníček, spoke in Bohdalová's voice for many years, and the actress even made the transition from 2D drawing to 3D animation with him. Trávníček has inherently entered the long list of cartoon characters whose dubbing the actress had already done at that time. However, it is definitely a unique phenomenon, because in her filmography it occupies a place mainly alongside evening cartoon characters such as Rákosníček or Křemílek and Vochomůrka. The company has been going through some marketing phases since the release of Trávníček. Sometimes it relies on Wheel of Fortune with Béďa, other times it tries to be more worldly - as confirmed by the advertising involvement of the American-Mexican actor Danny Trejo, with whom Mountfield has also worked several times. Béďa Trávníček returned again in 2014, but this time without Bohdalová. In this new iteration, it is a fictional character, for which actor Oldřich Navrátil was chosen. However, it is still true that the real Béda Trávníček has the unforgettable vocal performance of the "immortal aunt" Jiřina Bohdalová.
Video: Mountfield – Wheel of Fortune (Kolo štěstí)
How an aging seladon solved men's prostate problems
Advertising for food supplements. An eternal topic on the borderline between ethics and taste - but this does not deter companies from investing more and more in promoting their own products. And often it is celebrities they reach for, because they rely on the public to give their opinion. We have already witnessed many things in this regard - actors Miroslav Donutil or Jaromír Hanzlík appeared in an advertisement for Proenzi joint preparations, where they tried to convince the audience that aging does not have to mean complete exclusion from active life, while "celebrity" sexologist Radim Uzel repeatedly assured about the beneficial effects of Viagra ArginMax. It wasn’t particularly a marketing gem in none of these cases, but it served its purpose. The story of Marek Vašut and the prostate product Prostenal is exactly the same. This is certainly not the first time that Marek Vašut has appeared in an advertisement; on the contrary, his history is very rich in this respect. In the Prostenal spot, however, he puts himself in a slightly different role - he appears as a worldly-wise aging seladon who knows exactly what troubles gentlemen in their old age. He also offers his solution to the audience, and this message comes from a man to men. So there is no need to deal with the embarrassment of having to confide such a highly sensitive problem to a pharmacist. But the debatable quality of dietary supplement advertisements is often the least of the problems. By their very nature, they teeter on a fine line that is easy to cross, and identifying where pandering becomes outright manipulation is an art in itself. This is why the participation of celebrities in these spots is problematic, because they are acting as a kind of authority, which is, of course, a clear ploy on the part of the pharmaceutical companies to get consumers on their side.
Video: Prostenal – Modrá růže
How a winter swimmer called for a responsible approach to ageing and death
Seventy-four-year-old actor and winter swimmer Pavel Nový has successfully overcame more than one health crisis. He did not succumb to West Nile fever, which left him partially paralysed for a time in 2007 - after five months he left the rehabilitation centre on his own, with the help of canes. Even though he spent some time in a coma, it did not exclude him from social life. And he didn't lose his legendary optimism during the past year, when he was diagnosed with cancer. Given all he's been through, it's probably not so surprising to see the actor in the commercials we see. Most of them are aimed at seniors, promoting things like bargain life insurance, non-profit organizations that care for patients with chronic illnesses, and so on. The spot for the Association of Social Service Providers is definitely not out of the actor's range. Most of them have one thing in common - Nový warns in them that you can never know what fate has in store for you, so the best defense is not to underestimate the preparation. It's a rather strange phenomenon - because compared to all the other ads we've mentioned, the ads Nový appears in are very bland and unembellished. The basic animation is usually accompanied by some voice-over, which only works thanks to Nový's charismatic delivery. Even research shows that respondents remember that the advert with Nový exists, but few can also recall the brand that the spot is supposed to promote. Still, more are being created and it has not been without media hype. In 2016, for example, the pages of tabloids began to fill with articles about how Pavel Nový made a business out of death. This was exactly the case when, in a spot, Nový urged clients to take out insurance to cover the cost of a funeral. "It's useful. Imagine if your mother dies and you don't have insurance from the company, the funeral will cost you maybe thirty to forty thousand crowns. This way the insurance company will pay for it and it will cost you ten crowns a day. That's not that much," the actor insisted. And actually he is right - if there is such a demand, why not respond to it.
Video: APSS ČR – Social services: We might need them (Sociální služby: Můžeme je potřebovat)
So whatever familiar faces come to mind in connection with TV advertising, they all have one thing in common - their presence contributes to the credibility of the advertising message and to attracting the viewer's attention. Not only does this add weight to the spot, but it also helps to make the advertised product or service more memorable. A successful TV commercial can thus cause the product itself to become a celebrity of sorts. What's more, imagine the effect of advertising a lesser-known brand. The growth of the 'brand awareness' parameter thanks to a TV campaign is not just a naive idea. Television has proven to make a brand famous.
