Agency Heimat made this weird and wild ad, violently celebrating the gift of failure for Hornbach, the German home improvement store.
The solution
The ad took the offbeat approach of relishing the moment when all your hard work ends in failure.
This happens on a spectacular level in the spot, in which a son is horrified to see his father, putting the finishing touches to an ambitious structure, disappears under a pile of planks and rubble as the whole thing dramatically collapses. The boy’s first reaction is to burst into tears, but Dad emerges from the heap — not crying, but laughing hysterically, even when he pulls a massive splinter from his nose.
The tagline of the ad is “regret nothing,” and social content accompanying the campaign includes a website dedicated to the “poetry of failure.”
“Every project has its pitfalls and its challenges,” says Guido Heffels, creative director at Heimat, in a statement. “It was time to shatter the image of the notorious hero, yet still have this character emerge victoriously from the rubble of his endeavors. Giving something a go, having the courage to try, and everything that goes along with it — including the possibility of defeat: In our culture, defeat is almost sneered at and is not really considered an option.”