Tips to Keep You Out of the Kaka This Summer   17 Nov 2014

Paddling with Pupu: Tips to Keep You Out of the Kaka This Summer

Launching for summer, New Zealand Post and Maori Television have produced three outrageous water safety commercials with an important safety message – kia maanu, kia ora (stay afloat, stay alive).

Broadcast on Maori Television, the commercials are based around mahinga kai (collecting food) and use the bolshie, sassy and inappropriate Nani Pupu, played by Brent Mio, to deliver the often uninvited safety messages specifically to a Maori audience. Maori are overrepresented in drowning statistics*.

New Zealand Post briefed the Maori Television creative team to create a campaign that targets unprepared and overconfident Maori males who’ve spent their life around the water.

“We wanted the commercials to be engaging and to resonate with viewers, informing them about the dangers without scaring them off,” New Zealand Post spokesperson Charles Ropitini said.

“Working with Maori Television was a great way to reach our target audience.”

Mr Ropitini said water safety awareness was one of the ways New Zealand Post backed local communities, along with literacy programmes and its ‘ActivePost’ support for schools and clubs to get kids active by playing sport.

Mio’s Nani Pupu was incredibly well-received as a minor character in New Zealand Post’s previous campaign, Te Kupu o te Wiki. So using her as the know-it-all Nani to deliver the water safety messages was an ideal fit for this campaign.

Executive producer and Maori Television sales manager Toni Urlich says: “We wanted to create a campaign that not only targeted those going out on the water, but also resonated with the whole whanau.

“We want wives, sisters, brothers, children and grandparents to all parrot Pupu’s nagging but well-meaning safety messages – be careful, check conditions, and wear a life jacket. Your guts isn’t a flotation device!”

View the spots:

Awa Safety (River Safety) http://youtu.be/aTyEKCDi8Sg

Poti Safety (Boat Safety) http://youtu.be/EukMKRvNspo

Rock Safety (Toka Safety) http://youtu.be/1os9_bASP4c

Client – New Zealand Post
Creative Agency / Production – Maori Television

* Drowning data is sourced from Water Safety New Zealand’s DrownBase™ and the figures provided are provisional as at 11 November 2014.
• There have been 56 drowning deaths within New Zealand year to date. Of these, 11 are Maori.
• There were a total of 540 drowning deaths within New Zealand in the past five years (2009-2013).
Of these, 112 were Maori, which is a five year average of 22 Maori drowning deaths per year.
• Maori constitute 14 per cent of the population, but 21 per cent of the five year drowning toll.
• The five year average of male Maori drowning deaths is 20.
• The recreational activities with the highest drowning toll of male Maori in the past five years are water sports (swimming, jumping), land based fishing (angling, net fishing, shell-fishing) and underwater (snorkelling, scuba diving, free diving) activities.

ENDS

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