Chicken Licken: Journey to Inner Peace Country [video]

Good televisions adverts come and go, leaving little lasting impact on the viewer - while iconic advertisements live on in the minds of South Africans forever. Journey to Inner Piece Country, by Chicken Licken, has the propensity for immortality.

There have been some great TV ads which still linger in the memory of many South African. Advertising agencies resurrected form and catchiness as an ode to South Africa's post-94 new dawn.

South Africa's iconic adverts Which South African could forget Castrol oil's Boet & Swaer ad? The Sasol ad with the baby in the pram, and Cremora's it's not inside, it's on top'? Or our personal favourite, the Lunch Bar and Makitini?

In some ways, it was the golden age of advertising. South Africa had been starved of humour and vibrancy by an oppressive regime, and the new found freedom in creativity resulted in some memorable television moments as a whole.

Joe Republic and Chicken Licken But, in retrospect, South Africa was lagging far behind the global pack. In some ways, the golden age of advertising is just beginning to take flight in the country.

Leading the way with creativity, style, humour and fine political balancing is Joe Public United. The same ad agency that brought us S'bu 2.0, the robotic doppelganger who affords the real man a chance to dig into some Chicken Licken.

S'bu 2.0 set the bar high, but Joe Public United's offering, Journey to Inner Peace Country, takes it to another level.

The good, the bad and the ugly The advert, set in a dusty Wild West town, weaves its way through the uneasy political landscape currently enveloping South Africa. It disarms critical questions like the land issue with humour and gives South Africans a chance to laugh at themselves.

Watch: 3 pieces for Durango, Chicken Licken and Joe Republic

That's what separates the good, from the bad and the ugly. The good, allows a moment of playful introspection - a time and place where for a few minutes the viewer is transported to Inner Peace Country.

The campaign was released as a serious of shorts, which follow the protagonist, Bootless Bandit Durango, as he ventures through a strange and unfamiliar town - not saying much, not doing much, but affording the viewer a looking glass.

On his uncomfortable strut down dusty streets, he encounters taxi drivers, slay queens, road name changes and the land reform question a look into the microcosm of South Africa's unique complexities.

It's somewhere between Sergio Leone and Jam Alley, with Plank Films making the Journey to Inner Peace Country as believable as possible.

Xolisa Dyeshana, Chief Creative Officer at Joe Public, commented on the creative process, saying:

We wanted to take uniquely South African issues and spin a positive light on them. By taking tensions points we all experience as South Africans and showing how the tension can dissipate when we all have inner peace, paralleling the unusual Western town with our own country.

Credits: Brand: Chicken Licken

Client: Chantal Sombonos van Tonder

Agency: Joe Public United

Group Chief Creative Officer: Pepe Marais,

Chief Creative Officer: Xolisa Dyeshana

Creative Director: Claudi Potter

Senior Art Director: Katlego Baaitse

Senior Copywriter: Sarah Forbes

Set Art Director: Kezia Eales

Digital Agency: Joe Public Connect

Digital Designer: Michael Cavalho

Digital Designer: Katlego Phatlane

Digital Creative Director: Daryn Drake

Group Account Director: Amber Mackeurtan

Agency Producer: Diane Cole

Cinematographer: Eugenio Galli

Film Production: Plank Film Productions

Director: Peter Pohorsky

Producer: Ben Kaufman, Seamus Bax

Illustration: Jay Gordon

Sound Production: Produce Sound Louis Enslin

Tags: South African adverts

LINK:	https://www.thesouthafrican.com/chicken-licken-journey-to-inner-peace-...
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