Campari in ad review to revive brand

Classic Italian drink Campari, which made cockney model Lorraine Chase a household name and put Luton Airport on the map with its ads in the Seventies, is reviewing its advertising as its gears up for a relaunch.

The new distributor of the under-performing aperitif plans to put a significant spend behind the relaunched product. Distribution was switched from Remy & Associates to First Drinks Brands earlier this year.

The Campari account is handled by Bates Dorland, but has received only about 200,000 to 250,000 media spend a year. The agency is expected to be invited to repitch.

The best known advertising for the brand was devised by J Walter Thompson and featured Chase sipping a Campari with a nice-but-dim uppercrust smoothie.

Campari has been available in the UK since the Forties, but suffers from an ageing consumer profile. One observer says: “Youngsters think of it as something their grandmothers drink.”

Bates Dorland has run a poster campaign for the past four years featuring the line, “A splash of colour”.

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