Cut Everything You Don’t Need. Then Cut Again.

In partnership with

Hello, Creative Souls.

This one’s short. Fittingly.
Because the campaign we’re talking about doesn’t need much to land its point.

One shot.
One actor.
One perfectly chosen visual metaphor.

That’s all it took for Land Rover South Africa to drop one of the cleanest, sharpest campaigns we’ve seen in a while.

Campaign: “Genuine Parts”

Client: Land Rover South Africa
Agency: Young & Rubicam

Minimalism with Teeth (Sometimes Literally)

There’s a man in a lion suit.
There’s a toy crocodile drifting through water.
There’s something not quite right — and that’s exactly the point.

These aren’t just clever visuals. They’re distilled metaphors. The kind that make you smirk, then squirm.

Because when it comes to replacement parts for a Land Rover, “almost” isn’t good enough.
“Close enough” is dangerous.

Why It Works

🛠️ The message is embedded in the concept.
You could remove the brand name, the tagline, even the product — and the ad would still whisper the truth to your gut: Don’t fake it. Not here.

📦 Creative constraints become the superpower.
No dialogue. No complex staging. Just one clean setup and a single idea stretched tight enough to hold tension, but not break.

📉 It subtracts to sharpen.
Too many ads try to do too much, say too much, show too much. This one takes everything away — and what’s left is bulletproof.

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What Creatives Should Take From This

• Could your idea still work with no sound, one frame, and no product?
  If yes, you might be onto something timeless.

• Craft doesn’t always mean complexity.
  It means clarity. This campaign is all edge, no excess.

• When the metaphor hits right, you don’t need the message spelled out.
  In fact, it’s more powerful when you let the audience do the last 5% of thinking.

The Bigger Question

Clients often ask what else they can add.
The smarter question is: What are you brave enough to remove?

Land Rover’s “Genuine Parts” doesn’t just deliver a message — it delivers a challenge to every creative and strategist in the room.

What if the best version of your campaign…
…is smaller than you thought?

Until next week—
Keep cutting. Keep sharpening. Keep thinking.

As promised in our earlier edition, we have compiled all our insights into a 50+ Page E-book. Feel free to share it with your team and forward it to your colleagues in the advertising, marketing and the branding industry.
Buy Now.

Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.