Pot Noodles, love ‘em or loathe ‘em, you can’t dispute that the brand’s advertising ever goes unnoticed. From “Slag of all Snacks” to its more recent “Nothing Fills a Hole Like a Pot Noodle”, Unilever has got itself a winning formula, even though – as we have pointed out before – the product itself contains oodles of salt, “normal” fat and saturated fat.
Enter a new campaign from long term agency Adam & Eve DDB, which opens in silence apart from the noise of hot water being poured over a tub of Chicken and Mushroom flavoured Pot Noodle by a woman in an office kitchen. Seconds later she is seen shoveling as much as she can into her mouth.
And, seemingly desperate not to lose a drop, our protagonist then starts to slurp the food into her mouth so loudly that her fellow workers are stopped in their tracks.
No-one says a word, and all that can be heard is the woman slurping ever louder as her colleagues look up from their desks, wondering what all the noise is about, while others wince as the slurping continues.
Even a lift full of people are seen looking both bewildered and somewhat disgusted, while a Lycra-clad courier gazes on in disbelief.
However, our Pot Noodle lover does not appear to be the slightest bit bothered, she simply carries on regardless until she gets near to the end of her noodles when she tips up the tub and taps the last remnants into her mouth.
As the “Nothing Satisfies like a Pot Noodle” endline appears, our office worker can be heard to mutter “Nice”.
Sadly, we don’t have any official line from either the agency or the client but, as you can imagine, there is plenty of commentary on social media.
One wag wrote: “Put on the TV last night and an advert for Pot Noodle came on and honestly it is THE worst slurping noise I have ever heard. I have never felt so triggered in years. Just wanted to put the warning out there. It is horrendous. Their noodles aren’t even good either!”
Another chipped in: “Thank goodness I am not alone! That horrendous noise, coupled with that cretinous woman inhaling pretty much the whole pot, with noodles hanging out of her mouth…FFS, I could’ve punched the screen. Now I have to remember to mute the ads every time they are on.”
A third pondered: “I can’t imagine this will increase their sales. It’s gross,” while a fourth poured forth: “I can honestly say that in all my life I can’t recall another moment where an advert has made me feel that way – it genuinely felt like rage, and that’s not something I’m used to. Horrendous advert!”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office?
Well, we must concede we’re not that keen but, hey, we’re not that keen on the product either so we are unlikely to be in the target market.
However, Adam & Eve DDB know this ad is about as “on brand” as you can get and there is little doubt that for real Pot Noodle fans this is the stuff of riotous dreams, with the idea of noisily shovelling a whole pot down in one being about as close to heaven as you can get.
And, good luck to them, we say, just don’t expect us to eat that muck for our lunch…
Decision Marketing Adometer: A ‘let’s make some noise’ 7½ out of 10
