Creative Corner: Specsavers' relationship aid, Pizza Hut's vertical box and Nigel Farage's new barber

This week’s Creative Corner is a study in the art of the rebrand.

We’ve seen the industry take the traditionally unsexy and make it sensual, take the laws of physics and flip them on their side, and take a political swipe and turn it into a high-street punchline.

Specsavers: Hearing is the new foreplay

Let’s be honest, hearing aids aren’t usually associated with sex appeal.

They’re traditionally marketed with a clinical "problem/solution" vibe that feels more like a doctor’s waiting room than a lifestyle choice. Specsavers, working with Golin, has decided to set that narrative on fire by borrowing a creative framework from a very different industry: luxury sex tech.

The Relationship Aid is a brilliant piece of brand misdirection. 

The creative is very Apple-meets-Lovehoney; slow-motion close-ups of rounded edges, soft-focus lighting, and silk sheets gliding off what appears to be a mysterious new intimacy device. The rug-pull is that it’s actually the new Specsavers Advance 65 hearing aid.

Taking one simple insight - that hearing is an important part of emotional connection (and therefore intimacy) - and wrapping it in a recognisable creative format of the sex toy ad, The Relationship Aid reframes the cultural conversation around hearing aids to become distinctly more exciting. And just in time for Valentine’s Day, too. A really clever way to de-stigmatize something that is usually hidden away with the wink and nudge of some recognisable tropes.

Pizza Hut thinks outside, and flips over, the box

I recently treated myself to a pizza delivery, only to find that the cheese and toppings had divorced the base with a messy parting of ways - never thought it’d be me, but I resigned it to a probable box flip in the haste of delivery and managed to reassemble it without compromising much. My friend, however, said it had happened to them too many times to count. Having sparked a new concern in me for all future orders, Pizza Hut and Iris have stepped in just in time with the new Vertical Pizza Box.

This is a brilliant two-stage activation that is yet to reveal just how Pizza Hut has defied the laws of physics, which is set to be revealed soon. In the meantime, the campaign kicked off with a social content push featuring real people walking nonchalantly through the streets, carrying their pizza boxes vertically (kinda like a briefcase) to the puzzlement of onlookers.

Low-fi and cost-effective but with tonnes of shareability, it gets people talking with a simple 90 degrees.

Shopfront satire in Glasgow

Finally, we have a local bit of creative reactivity which shows the high street fighting back against a political dog-whistle with nothing more than a bit of image editing and wit. 

After Nigel Farage’s recent comments about the supposed "threat" of Turkish barbers to the UK high street, one shop in Glasgow decided a dry press release just wouldn't cut it.

G11 Barbers has created a new haircut menu, of sorts, consisting of the Reform UK leader showcasing 13 different hairstyles across the front of, and inside, the shop. Created by artist The Rebel Bear, the new barbershop takes a negative, divisive narrative and reclaims it through humour and community defiance, garnering both local and national fame beyond socials and into the headlines.

The magic of this is, of course, that it was just a guy (Ali Ghasr has personally invited Farage in for a cut), his team, and some local community collaboration with a point to make. In an era where political discourse is often just one exhausting soundbite after another, G11 Barbers proved that a bit of well-timed mockery is a fitting match for talkability.

That's it for this week's Creative Corner!

If you’ve seen something that’s caught your eye, or if you’ve been working on something you’re particularly proud of, please do get in touch via emily.barnes@fanclubpr.com. I’d love to hear about it.