News 2004
Missy Elliot to star in new Virgin Mobile ad
01/11/2004
- Ad campaign to support the launch of Virgin Mobile bundles
- £4m campaign
01.11.04: Virgin Mobile has announced that the star of its latest advertising campaign is the US hip hop superstar Missy Elliott. She will be seen in two new television adverts from November 1st, which have been created to support the launch of Virgin Mobile Bundles.
Virgin Mobile Bundles are a revolutionary range of products offering customers a selection of voice minutes, text messages and picture messages at great value. Virgin Mobile Bundles are set to shake up the mobile market, as the minutes and messages last longer than on any other prepay network, as unused minutes and messages can be carried over for another month when a subsequent bundle is bought.
Continuing Virgin Mobile’s advertising approach of combining urban music credibility with irreverent humour, Virgin Mobile’s two new ads will not disappoint, as we see three-time Grammy award winner Missy in a totally new light.
The first plot involves Missy in an unfortunate situation involving a faulty microphone. Missy is seen reading from an autocue while presenting an award to a close friend at a prestigious music awards ceremony. Unfortunately there is a misunderstanding when the microphone falters during her speech, and results in the sentiment coming across as something else entirely. The stunned silence of the crowd and subsequent shock of the recipient sees the ad close with the line:
“Our call and texts Bundles don’t expire after a month. So who cares if no one’s talking to you for a while?”
Missy’s second commercial sees her once again becoming the victim of an innocent misunderstanding. Missy is at a friend’s house along with her friend and friend’s father, eating pretzel and sipping champagne. A pretzel gets lodged in Missy’s throat, but her friend’s father is able to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on her, which dislodges the pretzel and stops her choking. Unfortunately, her friend suspects that they have been up to something far less innocent, and the ad once again closes with the line:
“Our call and texts Bundles don’t expire after a month. So who cares if no one’s talking to you for a while?”
The commercials will be seen in the UK only, from November 1st, and will run throughout November and December.
The films were directed by the award-winning Bryan Buckley, who co-founded Hungryman, and who directed the Christina Aguilera ‘The Devil Makes Work For Idle Thumbs’ advert for Virgin Mobile.
Buckley, named No. 1 director in the US by Creativity Magazine in 2002, has been directing commercials for ten years and has worked with some of the biggest name advertisers including Virgin Mobile, Fed Ex, and E Trade. He has also among others, directed ‘The Osbournes’ for Diet Coke and the ‘Butt naked boy’ commercial for Dr Pepper.
The commercials were created by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe /Y&R. Jez Willy and Al Davies wrote ‘Microphone’, and 'Heimlich' was written by Rob Hanson and Craig Holdsworth. The creative director was Ben Priest.
The media strategy will see the commercials being released exclusively by Virgin Mobile’s media partners, Kiss 100 a week before the TV launch, then launched to a wider 15-24 audience on TV from Monday 1st November, exclusive outtakes will also be available via iTV and online.
Notes to Editors:
For further information please contact:
| Virgin Mobile | |
| Virgin Mobile Press Office: | 0845 600 6272 or press.office@virginmobile.com |
| Alison Bonny: | 07802 430276 or alison.bonny@virginmobile.com |
| Joanne Baker: | 07941 233300 or joanne.baker@virginmobile.com |
| Henry’s House | |
| Rachel Moule: | 020 7291 3033 or Rachel@henryshouse.com |
| Rachel Moule: | 020 7291 2035 or krissy@henryshouse.com |
About Virgin Mobile:
Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) plc, the UK's largest mobile virtual network operator, is majority owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and uses T-Mobile's network. Since its launch in November 1999, Virgin Mobile has attracted more than 4.2 million customers.
In the UK, Virgin Mobile phones are available direct on 0845 6000 600; on the web at www.virginmobile.com or on the High Street at approximately 5,000 outlets including Virgin Mobile Specialist Stores, Virgin Megastores, Sainsbury, Tesco, Safeway, Asda, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Argos, The Link, Dixons, Carphone Warehouse, Curry's, Comet, Phones 4 U, TOMO, Woolworths, Toys R Us and Rymans.
Virgin Mobile employs approximately 1,400 staff at three sites, Trowbridge, London and Daventry, and has an outsourced customer service centre operated by approximately 200 staff in Middlesbrough. It has been voted one of the top 50 places to work in Britain for two years running in an annual Financial Times survey.
Virgin Mobile's customers are considered the most satisfied in the pre-pay sector according to a recent UK survey by market researchers JD Power and Associates.
