Imagine all the ads into which you could effortlessly embed the Village People and their joyful jukebox of hits. Royal Navy careers. A multi-trade recruitment agency. Cheap flights to Cornwall. Instead, shouty property-slinger YOPA has gazumped everyone, tapping the hi-NRG troupe for a brand push that is presumably designed to sear the nebulous online estate agent into the brainpans of potential house sellers.
But in its haste to tickle our nostalgia glands, YOPA has overlooked one crucial detail: even decades after their heyday, the peacock provocateurs still radiate such giant discoball charisma that any and all marketing messages are burned away.
Instead, the campaign – featuring six macho men cohabiting in a British suburban home, fretting over moving – has become the best houseshare sitcom on TV. There are no cheap gags about “fixing up a semi”; it’s just sweet, well-observed absurdity: the Young Ones with well-oiled guns, Fresh Meat with a disco beat, House Of Fools with a belt of tools. In fact, these ads are so great they will probably never last. But if anyone knows a place they can go when they’re short on dough, it’s these dudes.
