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Sensis “Not happy, Jan” after Darrell Lea swipes Yellow Pages ad

Anastasia Santoreneos
"Darrell Lea Makes it Better" ad actress Deborah Kennedy takes a bite of chocolate after asking her employee, Jan, where their ad is in "the directory". Source: Youtube.
"Darrell Lea Makes it Better" ad actress Deborah Kennedy takes a bite of chocolate after asking her employee, Jan, where their ad is in "the directory". Source: Youtube.

Many Aussies were turning heads when chocolatier Darrell Lea’s new take on an old Sensis ad made its way to households.

The ad, which has since been taken down, featured Aussie actress, Deborah Kennedy, who played in the original Yellow Pages ad, playing the same disgruntled boss, questioning her employee Jan about why their ad wasn’t in the “directory”.

But, instead of being “Not happy, Jan”, Kennedy’s character opens her drawer and pulls out a block of Darrell Lea chocolate, takes a bite, and remains calm.

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Instead of heading to the window to yell at poor Jan, Kennedy’s character instead says: “No worries, Jan”.

The similarities are pretty obvious.

And, while Sensis said it was “flattered” that Darrell Lea used the Yellow Pages advertising, they still issued the chocolate retailer and its advertising agency with a cease-and-desist letter, demanding they remove the ad from circulation.

“We are flattered that Darrell Lea has used our iconic Yellow Pages advertising, featuring ‘Not Happy Jan’. However, it has been used without our consultation or approval,” Yellow Pages executive general manager James Ciuffetelli said in a statement.

“By imitating our ad, we believe it is misleading to consumers. It’s clear on social media that a number of people believe Yellow Pages has endorsed this campaign which is not the case,” he continued.

While social media users liked the ad, they admitted it was probably a bit cheeky.

Others simply thought Sensis was being a little sensitive.

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