- The C'mons
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The C'mons or The C.M.O.N.S. are the fictional rock band used in viral marketing campaign to promote 4th generation Opel Corsa in Europe since 2006. The lyrics to all The C'mons songs are composed solely of the word "c'mon", hence the name.
Contents
History
The C'mons are knitted dolls created by the German artist Boris Hoppek in his distinctive style[1].
Initially, they featured in a fairly extensive advertising campaign on MTV UK and Ireland. This presented them as a band composed of woven hand puppets, who have released such tracks as "C'mon", "C'mon, C'mon" and "C'Mon, Yeah".
The adverts are in a rockumentary style but contain very little information other than the website address of MTV Under The Radar. This site in turn contains some vague information about the band, as well as links to the UK C'mons website.
This features a pop-up subsection called "C'mon!pedia", a mock Wikipedia-style article on the band, which fleshes out some details concerning the characters; specifically, it states that the C'mons are an "alternative rock formation out of Barcelona, Spain". Unlike the real Wikipedia article that page is not editable.
Later, The C'mons have featured in adverts for the 2006 model Vauxhall/Opel Corsa[2]. It has been suggested[3] that they may have been created solely for this advertising purpose, the idea being that the initial campaign would create hype amongst the target market (young cosmopolitan and trendy city dwellers of both sexes) which could then be exploited in the second campaign.
Apparently, the characters have had something of a cult following, with a set of five promotional editions changing hands for over £200 recently and celebrity fans including Radio 1's Chris Moyles and the Sugababes.
Music
Boris Hoppek is currently living in Barсelona, and the band of musicians who recorded songs for The C'mons project also come from this city[1].
The lyrics to all The C'mons songs are composed solely of the word "c'mon" repeated with different intonations. The band recorded a whole album of such songs, ranging from rockers to ballads. Stylistically, it can be described as dance punk with hints to brit-pop and indie rock. Dance punk genre was one of the trends of mid-2000s.
The album was available as a streaming content at The C'mons web-site.
Regional differences
The campaign took its start in UK, were the vehicle is known as Vauxhall Corsa. However, in all other European markets the vehicle is known Opel Corsa.
For Russian market, The C'mons were renamed Rulezzzz[4].
Original songs are not used in Russian campaign. According to the legend, Rulezzzz are ska band from Lobnya[4] (instead of dance-punk act from Barcelona). The sole promo song is available at rulezzzz.ru web-site. Its lyrics are composed of words "rules" and "c'mon".
Opel Russia advertisement director Maria Kosareva explains this in the following way[1]:
European trendsetters are different from Russian ones, so we decided to adapt the campaign by using localized names and biographies
References
- ^ a b c "Хулиган" Magazine, September 2007, www.xyligan.ru
- ^ Advertising campaigns by Delaney Lund Knox Warren and Partners Ltd.
- ^ immediapress
- ^ a b rulezzzz.ru promotional web-site
External links
- Official homepage
- MTV Under The Radar
- vauxhall-accessories.com, one of few places where The C'mons dolls can be purchased
Categories:- Viral marketing
- Fictional musical groups
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