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For 15 years, a shepherd and his hapless helper have greeted Slovak television viewers with rustic jokes, farmyard props and a loyal dog named Dunčo. The pair are not characters from a sitcom but the stars of COOP Jednota’s long-running advertising campaign, a rare case of marketing longevity in a crowded retail market.

The characters first appeared in 2008, when the country’s largest co-operative grocery chain turned to the Bratislava agency Jandl to devise a campaign that would set it apart from foreign rivals. The answer was a bača — a traditional herdsman — dispensing homespun wisdom, and his well-meaning but clumsy sidekick.

Since then, the duo have featured in more than 300 commercials, often filmed against the backdrop of the Low Tatras and relying on wordplay or slapstick. Their humour — a mix of rural stereotypes and gentle absurdity — has made them widely recognisable, even if some critics say the formula shows its age.

The shepherd is played by Jevgenij Libezňuk, a Ukrainian-born stage actor whose lines are dubbed into Slovak. His assistant, honelník, is portrayed by Peter Mattes, familiar from television dramas. A succession of canine actors has filled the role of Dunčo, the faithful Slovak Cuvac.

The campaign has also moved onto new platforms. The shepherds now appear on TikTok and other social media, a nod to younger consumers who may not share the nostalgia of their parents.

COOP Jednota, which operates nearly 2,000 outlets, presents the campaign as an expression of tradition, pointing to its co-operative roots dating back more than a century. Whether two shepherds can continue to carry that message in the digital age is another matter. But for now, in Slovak advertising, they remain an unlikely pair of survivors.