Nostalgia can be a powerful tool in advertising, as the in-house creative team at Specsavers clearly realise, if their new ad is anything to go by. The ad features an array of characters from the classic BBC TV series Mr Men, and is centred around Mr Happy, who is unexpectedly grumpy…

Mr Happy is found lying in bed, with his mouth firmly turned down as he clutches a pair of glasses. The voiceover (which is a splendid impression of Arthur Lowe, who provided the voice to the original Mr Men cartoon series) then informs us that Mr Happy’s sour mood is caused by the various offers he missed out on by not going to Specsavers for his specs. We then see him stomping irritably around town, falling out with Mr Greedy, Mr Messy, Mr Tickle and Mr Bump in turn.

The ad was directed by Passion Pictures’ director Darren Walsh, who studied the animation in the original TV series in order to reproduce the retro 2D style, complete with imperfections. This is not the first time Specsavers have turned to retro children’s telly for inspiration, and the ad follows the brand’s Postman Pat-themed ad from last year, which was also directed by Walsh and had a similar attention to detail.

Credits:
Agency: Specsavers Creative
Creative director: Graham Daldry
Creatives: Simon Bougourd, Neil Brush, Michael Hutchinson, Aaron Scoones
Production company: Passion Pictures
Director: Darren Walsh