Ditch the iPad, cancel the playdates and take your adventure-starved kids on an old-fashioned camping adventure.
That’s the message in “Wildhood,” a new campaign for industry group Go RVing, which aims to inspire Canadians to take on the nation’s great outdoors.
Set against artfully shot images of nature, the video spot nudges overprotective parents and reminds us all that gadgetry alone won’t make kids happy campers.
“Kids want their wildhoods back, they want to play, not have playdates,… They want to get dirty, not sanitize. They want you to trade your helicopter for an RV,” according to the young narrator, reading from a short manifesto that plays on youthful innocence and today’s parental trends.
The campaign, which Toronto-based agency DS+P created, tugs at the heartstrings and uses nostalgia to evoke the sense of adventure and pre-internet fun that parents may remember from their own childhoods.
“Creatively, we wanted to capture how RVing provides that sense of freedom we have lost as adults,” said DS+P partner Denise Rossetto in a press release.
“Our children not only crave this freedom, they need it. Go RVing Canada is a brand that lives up to this promise,” she added.
The Wildhood campaign is being launched with 30-second radio spots, which will run in both English and French. The television spot will launch in March, a little closer to the spring thaw.
Both the radio and video tie in with the website, where viewers can watch an extended 60-second version of the ad, and check out the Wildhood manifesto.
The campaign will also include public relations support from Edelman. Starcom MediaVest Group handled the broadcast media buy.
“Our goal is to inspire more Canadians to consider the RVing lifestyle and experience,” said Chris Mahony, the executive director of Go RVing Canada, the industry group representing RV manufacturers, dealers and campground operators.
“Rather than defining that experience for Canadians, we are bringing to life how RVing is a great way to rediscover their sense of adventure, and to spark that curiosity and freedom that can become lost in adulthood.”
Last spring, the RV industry petitioned the federal government to improve infrastructure at campgrounds for newer and larger vehicles.
According to the Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association (RVDA) of Canada and the Canadian Camping and RV Council (CCRVC), Canadians spent $1.6 billion at the nation’s campgrounds in 2011.
The groups added that economic activity “associated” with RV industry in Canada reached $14.5 billion in the same year.
