Bruce the giraffe relishes freedom in Triple M’s post-lockdown campaign

Triple M has kicked off its summer advertising push, bringing back Bruce the giraffe.

Viewers first met Bruce in March as he danced and thundered around his living room to Whitesnake’s ‘Here I Go Again’.

The rationale for using an – admittedly animated – giraffe to distill the sounds and feelings produced by Triple M was that “it’s too hard to describe with words what ‘Sounds like Triple M’… and a singing giraffe gives the audience a pretty good idea”.

Now Bruce is back, having a rollicking good time listening to The Choirboys’ ‘Run to Paradise’.

He leaves his home, startles the neighbours, and even meets a fellow rock-loving giraffe, Barbs.

The radio brand said the campaign “personifies” the Triple M brand – although, perhaps, given the involvement of animals there’s a fair bit of anthropomorphising going on too.

“Why have two giraffes belting out a rock epic in suburban streets? Because the essence of what makes Triple M, Triple M is so unique – with its world-first combination of rock, sport and comedy – maybe the question should be, why not a giraffe?” publicity for the campaign said.

Head of Triple M, Mike Fitzpatrick, framed Bruce as Triple M’s ‘every man’.

“Bruce is just like every Triple M listener coming out of 2020 – excited to be out, with the world’s greatest rock station in their ears and wearing their inner rock star on their sleeve,” he said.

The chief marketing and communications officer at Triple M’s parent company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), Nikki Clarkson, added: “We are excited to be able to continue with this campaign, bringing Triple M to life in a memorable and never boring way, especially with an Aussie classic track such as The Choirboys’ ‘Run to Paradise’.”

The campaign which will run across TV, outdoor, digital and social platforms, was created by Thinkerbell.

The agency’s co-founder and chief creative tinker, Jim Ingram, said: “In this latest iteration of Bruce we thought it was important to get him out of the house – he’s been cooped up for a whole and was going a bit stir crazy. So, it’s good to see Bruce exploring his neighbourhood and rocking out to Triple M at the same time.”

Campaign credits:

Agency: Thinkerbell
CGI/VFX: Cadre Pictures
Production: The Producers
Sound: Brendan Tacey, Triple M