Video Credit: jetski314159
If you are an Australian, or have Australian friends in your expat network, you may have had a “Jan” moment in the office and that’s what makes Yellow Pages’ iconic “Not happy Jan” ad arguably three of the most famous words ever written by an Australian advertising copywriter.
And if you want to feel really old, the campaign – that still hits the mark to this day – has just celebrated its 20th birthday.
The original ad was the work of Clems Melbourne and although the “not happy Jan” phrase soon entered the public’s lexicon as a polite way of not swearing at an incompetent staffer’s stuff-up, interestingly the spot never won any major awards at the time.
Back in 2000, the internet was yet to fully take-off and, yes, customers still looked up businesses in two whopping print directories dumped annually on your doorstep.
"Not happy, Jan!" was a line delivered by comedian Deborah Kennedy in this Australian television advertisement from the year 2000. Due to the ad's popularity in Australia, the line entered the cultural vernacular as a catch phrase used to express a feeling of discontent.
As a testimony to the legacy of the spot, over the weekend The Daily Telegraph tracked down the ad’s original ECD, Ant Shannon, who now runs his own creative agency, Shannon & Co.
Shannon told The Tele: “We knew the ad had to be highly entertaining and would somehow connect the viewer to the product emotionally.
“As a result we developed this concept of ‘scare tactics’, you know. What a disaster it would be if someone forgot to place an ad in the Yellow Pages. And then have to endure a whole year without it there. What that would mean.”
Shannon admitted the “Not happy Jan” line just happened from the creatives all playing around with the copy.
“We all thought it was hilarious,” Shannon said of the iconic line and, thankfully, the client agreed.
In the commercial, a businesswoman (Kennedy) has just discovered that one of her staff (Jan, played by Rhonda Doyle) has neglected to book an ad in the upcoming year's Yellow Pages. Realising they will have to wait another year, she calmly goes through some anger management techniques.
When Jan runs away from work, Kennedy's unnamed character talks to herself and counts to ten before opening the window and shouting "Not happy, Jan!" towards the fleeing figure of Jan.
The phrase was coined by Kennedy on the day of shooting. The ad ended up becoming lucrative for Australia's Yellow Pages with the words "Closing Soon. Call 13 23 78" appearing on television from 2000 to 2003
The rest, as they say, is Australian advertising folklore. Enjoy Jan’s momentous blunder one more time as a birthday treat.
Parts of this article were first published on B&T Australia
