For Passport Office Paddy Power transformed their Baggot Street retail store into ‘Paddy Power’s Passport Office’, to make sure English fans leave with a consolation prize if (and hopefully when) Ireland win on Saturday. Pic:Karen Morgan
This weekend ahead of the Ireland v England 6 Nations match in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, The Public House and Paddy Power partnered up to mercilessly troll the English rugby team.
With rounds of negotiations and painstaking debates across the pond, Paddy Power took inspiration, and advantage, of a very topical conversation and the perfect opportunity to back the boys in green. Headline-driven executions featured playful jabs like “No stopping this backstop”, “Beating you at your own game (Literally)” and “Odd’s on an ‘Edxit’ this year – 1/2”
With multiple Brexit-toned digs in the form of a fully integrated campaign – OOH, Press, Social and an activation in the Paddy Power Baggot Street branch, the Dublin based agency worked with Paddy Power to hijack the rugby conversation.
“Between the latest Brexit developments and the accusation made by Eddie Jones’ assistant coach John Mitchell earlier this week that Ireland would attempt to ‘bore the s***’ out of England’, Paddy Power decided to step in and make sure that their visit to Dublin will be anything but dull as they arrive,” a spokesperson for Paddy Power said.
“Plus, they’ve being boring the s*** out of us with their Brexit waffle ever since the referendum,” she added.
Colin Hart, Creative Director & Founder, The Public House, said “After the past few campaigns with our friends at Paddy Power, where we’ve provoked National debate, we thought we’d try a different Nation to piss off”.
The Paddy Power Passport office, erected outside the Baggot street branch, is sure to cause controversy as the bookmaker pokes fun at the record breaking Irish passport applications coming from the UK in light of Brexit.
The Public House have a long and infamous history in helping Paddy Power court controversy, from creating a Drive-Thru confession box for the 2018 Papal visit, erecting a 70 foot apparition of the Virgin Mary holding the Sam Maguire aloft at Knock to creating a 30 foot gold statue of Virgil van Dijk outside Liverpool Football Club’s Anfield Stadium – to ask if transfer signings really are worth their weight in gold.
The activation for Paddy Power continues a great start to 2019 for the growing independent creative agency, who just launched new campaigns for client partners 123.ie.
The agency’s philosophy ‘Boring Doesn’t Sell’ underlines that in today’s era, the most dangerous thing a brand can do is play it safe. Visit www.publichouse.ie
Credits:
Brand: Paddy Power
Head of Major Brand Activations: Paul Mallon
Irish PR and Mischief Champion: Rachael Kane
Creative Director: Colin Hart
Art Director: Ciarán Doyle
Senior Designer: Trevor Nolan
Senior Account Manager: Ciana Nolan
Head of Account Management: Sinead Dennis
Activation Build: 9 Yards
