"We Love Fish"

24 July 2026

60s

There's something fishy going on.

So much of the comedy in this dryly delivered commercial for Sealord from New Zealand derives from its absurd details. Why, for example, does the younger protagonist suddenly produce a French horn as the scene transitions to another place? We have no idea, but we love it. Director Damien Shatford has squeezed every drop of humour from the script and dribbled it across the screen in a fashion that makes it very entertaining... and very effective.

The tacit acknowledgement that tinned fish can be a social anathema is a risky but clever choice. It doesn't always make sense to underline product's negative qualities but, sometimes, doing so gets you onside with the audience because they know truth when they see and hear it. It certainly didn't do Marmite any harm to acknowledges its divisive qualities!

This combination of portentousness and humour is something the Australians and New Zealanders do particularly well, and this ad is further proof that some of the best English language work in the world is currently coming from that region, and we are very much here for it.

New Zealand

Fish