Paddling with Pupu: Tips to Keep You Out of the Kaka This Summer
Launching for summer, New Zealand Post and Māori Television have produced three outrageous water safety commercials with
an important safety message – kia maanu, kia ora (stay afloat, stay alive).
Broadcast on Māori 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 Māori
audience. Māori are overrepresented in drowning statistics*.
New Zealand Post briefed the Māori Television creative team to create a campaign that targets unprepared and
overconfident Māori 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 Māori 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 Māori 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 – Māori 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 Māori.
• There were a total of 540 drowning deaths within New Zealand in the past five years (2009-2013).
Of these, 112 were Māori, which is a five year average of 22 Māori drowning deaths per year.
• Māori constitute 14 per cent of the population, but 21 per cent of the five year drowning toll.
• The five year average of male Māori drowning deaths is 20.
• The recreational activities with the highest drowning toll of male Māori 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