Sometimes you come across an ad campaign that's so fucking brilliant that every time it comes on TV, you roll on the floor laughing, even though you don't understand every word of the copy.
A Turkish brand of condoms called "Okey" is running a broadcast and outdoor campaign called "'Bana bir şey olmaz deme' okey, mi?" This translates to: "Don't say 'Nothing will happen to me,' OK?"
We first noticed this campaign when an ad featuring four guys installing a klima ran a thousand times a night. In it, one guys climbs a ladder, another guy hangs out the window upside down installing the kilma, a the third guy holds the second guy's legs and the fourth "assists." Astute readers know that something very similar happened on our sokak! (Trust me, you don't need to understand Turkish to find these ads funny).
Then, the second ad in the campaign appeared. It showed a guy carrying at least 12 damacan (water bottles) strapped to the back of his scooter. Have you ever ordered multiple bottles at a time? Then you know that no matter how many you order, the sucu will deliver them all at once.
The third one -- and my personal favorite -- has 15 dudes holding up a truck while another guy welds its undercarriage. In need of a tea break, they prop it up with 2x4s. Malaasef, we can't find it anywhere online.
Do we really need to explain why these ads are funny? They are funny because every scene happens all the time here! This agency, whoever they are (and there's reason to believe there's a yabancı behind the creative because Turks are typically unwilling to make fun of themselves to this degree), made an entire ad campaign featuring Turknology! If we were a creative director, we would make an ad of an usta sticking a screwdriver in an electrical socket to determine if it's working. Nothing is funnier than Turknology.
There are other ads from an earlier campaign -- someone sticking a fork in a toaster, a guy talking on a cell phone during a flight, a guy adjusting a TV antennae during a lighting storm -- but they just don't convey the same sense of abject Turkishness as the ones running now (although, if you're in Turkey, your inability to watch these ads on YouTube meets and exceeds your daily recommended allowance of Turkishness).
We don't know if these ads effectively sell condoms to Turks. We may not be the target demographic, but if we needed condoms, we would totally buy "Okey."
