Advertising agency Lowe Bull Cape Town makes light of the typically stressful experience of buying a car in its latest radio campaign for the Cape Times’ newspaper supplement, Drive Times.

“Drive Times is one of the more reliable places to look if you’re interested in buying a vehicle,” explains Kirk Gainsford, Lowe Bull CT Executive Creative Director. “In order to demonstrate this, we went about dramatising just the opposite.”

The humorous campaign achieves this objective by creating a scenario involving three rather interesting characters who are attempting to sell their vehicles directly to the public – and at a remarkably good price. They do this via posters around the city, emailers and ‘for sale’ signs attached to their cars.

When listeners call the cellphone number that is presented on the ad, they are greeted by one of the three fabricated characters: Clifford, Mike or Doris.  Each of the characters sounds as if they are in a questionable situation – certainly not somebody to buy a car from. However, these are merely pre-recorded messages made to sound as if the caller has in fact gotten through to them.

Once the caller puts down the phone, they are immediately sent the following SMS: “Before you consider buying a vehicle from anyone else, consult the Drive Times for new & used vehicles. Free every Thurs with the Cape Times. Know all about it.”

“This campaign has a fun and interactive twist which differentiates it from traditional messaging, especially in this sector,” adds Gainsford.