Creative Impulse

G oodmans hi-fi has launched its first cinema advertising campaign for its in- car brand. Produced with Saatchi and Saatchi, the 50-second ad shows an executive stopping to pump up what appears to be a flat tyre, but turns out to be an inflatable doll. The company has courted controversy before, with its 1992 ads featuring Helmut Newton's photographs of a couple petting in a car.

The client: Goodmans

John Edwards, head of group corporate communications, Alba plc

"Goodmans has had a wonderful strapline for many years: `Goodmans - Britain's second favourite in-car entertainment.' We ran an advert in the Daily Star after the Hugh Grant story broke. It was a cutting from the Daily Express together with `Goodmans - still Britain's second favourite in-car entertainment.' That was also well-received.

We wanted to introduce a campaign that reinforced that strapline in a humorous way. Saatchi suggested things along the lines of the Club 18-30 `Beaver Espana!' campaign. This wasn't in line with our image.

The blow-up doll was one of the wittiest concepts. We're trying to reach young people - the 20- to 35-year-old with disposable income, people who want to change their in-car entertainment, rather than buy original equipment."

The agency: Saatchi and Saatchi

Martin Duke, account supervisor

"They wanted to move on from the Helmut Newton shots. We felt we needed to move the campaign on slightly, too. Consumers have changed, and rather than be sexy, as it were, we wanted to have a bit more fun.

Goodmans is a company with a very clear marketing tradition. It never takes itself too seriously. We said: `Let's go into a medium we haven't used before.' So we came up with a cinema script featuring a blow-up doll, by Eugene Rouane. They loved it.

It wasn't so much a conscious effort to be controversial; just us following our brief."

Goodmans' campaign runs for six weeks to 25 April

SCOTT HUGHES