A Breakdown Of Warburton’s Hilarious Advertising Campaign

Robert De Niro and Bolton – two things you’d probably never expect to hear in the same sentence. However, today the weird and wonderful world we live in has presented us with a mash-up of the two, in the form of an advertising campaign. Warburton’s… congratulations, you’ve made us care about bagels more than we ever thought was possible.

The two-minute advert opens with De Niro storming into the head office at Warburtons to speak to the top dog about his bagel masterplan. Italian Gangsters entering the bagel market is a no brainer after all. It’s an entertaining exchange between both Jonathan Warburton and De Niro, who plays up to the mafia boss character he’s famous for.

The advert then shows Robert De Niro’s pitch where he and his minions venture through Bolton in order to cook up their rebranded bagels, suitably named ‘Goodbagels”. The advert concludes with Jonathan Warburton being intimidated by De Niro and his men after stating ‘this won’t end well’.

Highlighting Core Values

Exciting probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you think about Bolton. Yet somehow, I now want to watch a mobster film set in Bolton. The advert does a great job at showcasing familiar places in Bolton town centre such as the Bolton Train Station and the Warburtons factory.

Any fellow “Boltonian” will be amused throughout.

Combined with the imagery of De Niro and his gang on a mission to create a killer bagel, the advert simply brings Bolton to life.  Being a family-owned business, Bolton is at the heart of Warburtons and vice versa.

Bolton is an integral pillar of the Warburton’s brand and the advert plays on that by showing us that Bolton is producing bagels so good that they are gaining attention overseas. That’s not too far fetched, right?

A Familiar Storyline

In the world of business, many people sell products that simply aren’t exciting. Don’t get me wrong, bagels are great. But, injecting your products into interesting storylines is a great way to build more excitement around a product.

It’s a common tactic in the marketing world and hats off to the marketing team at Warburton’s because they executed it expertly here. Seeing the Warburtons product alongside Robert De Niro in a mobster like scenario suddenly makes me more invested in the brand and the product.

Why?

Because it’s entertaining and instantly relatable.

When I say relatable, I’m not implying that we all dabble in mobster like activities in our spare time. But, relatable in the sense that so many people around the world love Robert De Niro and the films he stars in.

Warburton’s have taken something many people love and care about and promoted their product through that medium.

We’ve all seen product placement before but the way the two are interwoven here is so well-crafted and strangely seems natural.

Seeing Robert De Niro and his men burying their competitor’s bagels is something I’d never thought I see.

Not to forget the lines ‘all we got to do is sit back and watch the dough roll in’ and “you wanna make it in the bagel business? You gotta break some bread.”

So punny.