Monkhouse's Voice from the Grave wins Tube Ad Competition

An advert featuring dead comedy legend Bob Monkhouse, talking to commuters from the grave has won CBS-Outdoor's Underground Writers Competition. The competition was for advertising people to create a Tube advert that explores an interesting and involving concept in more depth.


I think it's absolutely brill. It's an extension of the last year's TV adverts (which I'd never seen before) where Bob is talking to viewers "after" his death. It's a funny, touching and effective charity campaign for Prostate Cancer. Monkhouse died of the illness 2003 and the campaigns were made with the full support of Bob's family.

The Tube Car ad copy has Monkhouse's cheestastic sense of humour "I went to a specialist who told me to bend over. He said "I'm about to insert a finger". I said "Please insert two, I want a second opinion".

To cut a long story short I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and two years later I was dead (It's a bit like travelling on the Northern Line only quieter)."

Copy from the other winning ad includes: "If you think your underground journey's taking a long time, try being 6ft under for eternity. Count yourself lucky. a few more stops you'll be up the escalator, out in the fresh air and back on with your lives. I on the other hand, am down here permanently, thanks to the prostate cancer that cancelled all my engagements forever in 2003."

A total of 212 campaigns were reviewed by a panel of five industry judges. The winner - The Communications Agency's - was announced last week from a shortlist of forty campaigns. You can view the shortlist & the other ad in the winning campaign at www.underground-writer.com.

CBS Outdoor's Marketing Director, Carol Wolrich, said: "Tube Cards are a great place to have a one to one conversation with people. People enjoy reading them, finding them a welcome distraction from their journey and from having to look at other commuters! The aim of the competition was to encourage creatives to make the most of this relationship using Tube Cards to tell a story about their brand."

Even though some of us have been giving CBS a bit of a bashing lately, they do some good things and I bet TfL are responsible for the more puritanical bans rather than CBS themselves.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, March 04, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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