‘You know when you’ve been Tango’d’ was ubiquitous in Britain during the 90s and 00s as audiences embraced the phrase that stemmed from a campaign by HHCL, featuring an orange man happily slapping unsuspecting drinkers of Tango.

Despite being banned at one point and causing a rise in incidents of school playground slapping, it became one of the most memorable ad campaigns ever.

Since then, Tango has never quite gone as wacky in its advertising, although VCCP London’s Tanguru 2019 campaign, where sticky situations were resolved with one swig of the drink, did contain echoes of the brand’s former silliness. 

Now though, VCCP is back again with a new spot for Tango that sets out to rekindle that zany, British humour of ads gone by and gain a new generation of fans.

Directed by Ben Tonge and produced by Girl&bear, the 60-second comedic spot sees police raid a Tango lab and discover all the ingredients needed to make new flavour Tango Dark Berry. Along the way, a police officer succumbs to a drop of the good stuff and finds he can’t stop dancing as a result.

The campaign aims to establish Tango’s new brand platform, ‘dangerously potent flavour’, and is a conscious return to the bold ads of the 90s, though it does lack some of that low-budget rawness the originals had. 

It’s not the only brand re-embracing the silly, with adam&eveDDB’s recent ad for Pot Noodle adopting a similarly cheeky and surreal tone while filling the holes of typically British things such as potholes and red post boxes with piles of noodles. 

Credits:
Agency: VCCP London
Creative Directors: George Wait, Mark Orbine
Director: Ben Tonge
Production Company: Girl&Bear