Visa is a formal client. So, our objective was to prove their commitment to the New Zealand International Comedy Festival by demonstrating exactly how far they’ll go to make the festival as entertaining as possible.

At the time of entry, the festival has not begun and ticket-sales figures are unavailable.

Using laughing gas was a risky choice: it wasn’t strictly legal, we didn’t know if it actually makes people laugh, or if it even lets them function properly.So, we threw caution to the wind and headed for the studio with a comedian and a tankful of gas to see what would happen. We drafted up a basic script and started ‘experimenting’, starting initially with no laughing gas, then a little bit, and then a lot more. After filtering out the incoherent parts, we presented the ads to a nervous client, who bravely agreed to let them go to air.

Stand up comedy is more of a verbal art than a visual one. So, radio seemed like the most appropriate way to inject the type of humour you’d hear at the Comedy Festival into the advertising.