Run Cactus Kid Run

Run Cactus Kid Run is an advertising campaign for the soft drink Oasis. The campaign launched in June 2008 in the United Kingdom. It tells the story of Cactus Kid - a misunderstood anti-hero does not like water, but loves Oasis. The campaign includes three 30 second advertisements entitled 'Pregnant', 'Diner' and 'Motel' and also comprises series of web content and social networking elements.
Campaign elements
Television advertising
'Cactus Kid's character and the Run Cactus Kid Run campaign were created by advertising agency Mother. The ads were shot in Mexico in the style of an American road movie.
Online
A series of websites and social network elements were created to expand on the story of Cactus Kid and Cactus Girl. The online content was created by digital advertising agency glue London.
Mothers Against Cactus Kid (M.A.C.K.)
The sequence tells the story of Cactus Girl’s mother Merrill Dawning, who believes her daughter was kidnapped by Cactus Kid and in protest founded the organisation Mothers Against Cactus Kid online. Merrill has set the cops on Cactus Kid in order to rescue her daughter.
The Hunt For Cactus Kid
The Hunt for Cactus Kid is headed by a rogue US sheriff. He enlists the help of the online public to help him find Cactus Kid in a Google Maps-based Mechanical Turk application with a $2000 reward.
Characters
Cactus Boy
Cactus Boy is inspired by James Dean and Steve McQueen. He appears to be part man and part cactus. His mysterious past is unclear and he never speaks a word. He has run away with his pregnant girlfriend Cactus Girl and is now living on the lam.
Cactus Boy sightings have been posted on YouTube and Flickr.
Cactus Girl
Cactus Girl is a small town, 20-year-old girl who was just waiting for her life to begin. Then she met Cactus Boy. Cactus Boy who like her doesn’t like water. She becomes pregnant with the child by Cactus Boy and the two have run away to start a new life together. But freedom is not in store for the ill-fated couple.
Cactus Girl vents her frustrations with her hometown, living with her parents, and being on the run on her Myspace video blog.
Music
The Cactus Kid soundtrack was originally composed in 1536 by Hans Neusiedler. The arrangement made specifically for the Cactus Kid campaign was recorded by Tom Hodge and Arnold Hattingh of Boosey and Hawkes.
The Campaign Ending
On posters, phone boxes and the internet, the public were invited to visit the Run Catus Kid Run website to vote on how they wanted the Cactus Kid story to end. There were three endings to choose from: Happy, Sad and Twist, and viewers weren't able to watch them in their entirety until the winner was announced on 22 September. Twist won, with 43% of the vote, and the endings were also posted on YouTube.
Controversy
The Advertising Standards Authority received thirty two complaints of the advert on six different grounds, As well as that, it discourage good dietary practice as the girl drank Oasis as a substitute to water, and it was screened at a time when it could be watched by children and young people.
Despite being approved by Clearcast as claimed by Coca-Cola GB, the ASA concluded that it breached its guidelines on two grounds,<ref name="BBC"/>
Coca-Cola GB responded to claims stating that the advert did not "denigrate" water and did not discourage other people from drinking it, the ASA concluded that it did suggest that "water was being rejected" .<ref name="guardian"/> It stated that the girl was portrayed as a 20 years old and portrayed by 22-year-old actress, stating further that the commercial intended to be the style of "a film trailer than a reflection of a real life situation." The ASA concluded that the actress was "likely to be viewed as a girl in her early teens", despite her age.<ref name="guardian"/> The advert was banned on those two grounds from further broadcast in its current form.<ref name="guardian"/>

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