Ungrudging the 'grudge purchases' with nice humour

If you were watching Carte Blanche last night, you may have noticed - and giggled at - an ad that aired for the first time in the country. It's embedded below, if you missed it:

A real-life giraffe that bends its neck to pop its head in the window and help you clean the dishes by hand? Excellent way to link a grudge chore (I've yet to meet anyone who enjoys washing the dishes) to a grudge purchase, highlighting the fact that King Price gives you a bonus too, by offering premiums that decrease each month.

We chatted exclusively to Oelschig about this 'nice' concept.

He says it took about a month to train the giraffe to lick a plate, and then a full-day shoot using a set built in the veld where the giraffe lives, in the Lion Park near Lanseria.

The inspiration behind the ad idea overall was definitely that insurance is a grudge purchase, yet King Price's decreasing monthly premiums count as an un-grudge. "Like when you don't have to pay for parking... It's a small saving every month that feels nice. We tried to capture the feeling of nice in an interesting way, like with a giraffe lick." The ad is all about the character though, and how he responds to and enjoys the experience.

At the end of the day, they didn't want to use CGI or animatronics and wanted an animal they could train. "A giraffe is good,", explains Oelschig.

Click here for more on King Price's quirky ads, here for more on Halo, and here to follow Oelschig's Twitter updates.