HOBBY’s Oskar Bård Lets Kids’ Lunchables Mealtime Masterpieces Run Wild

Lunchables has always encouraged kids to have fun with their food. This latest campaign from agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners sees children’s ‘Lunch-a-Build’ creations given the big screen treatment. In ‘Invasion’ (Dir-cut), a huge Kaiju-style beast roams the streets of a metropolis, while in ‘Hippo’ a swaggering girl proudly walks a Lunch-a-Build hippo through her neighbourhood. 

“I love cheese and I love monsters. It was a perfect match” said HOBBY director Oskar Bård.

“It’s such a great idea to open these spots in the actual imaginations of these kids,” said HOBBY producer John Gerard. “Then we reveal that the kids are just playing with their Lunch-a-Builds on the kitchen table. And, of course, the parents are doing their best to join in, but these sassy kids soon set them straight.”

Shot in Montevideo, Uruguay, Oskar and his team used a blend of physical effects and CG to transform the city into a sprawling, US-style metropolis for ‘Invasion’. Local vehicles were dressed and painted to look like North American school buses and taxi cabs. Giant prop pieces of cheese, ham and crackers rained down on a cast of 60 extras and 20 picture cars. “It felt more like a feature film shoot than a commercial,” said John. “We had a lot of conversations about how far to push the destruction. We wanted to get that epic feel of a Godzilla movie, but without scaring the kids at home. It was fun trying to get that balance just right.”

To create the animals, HOBBY’s in-house VFX team collaborated with creature animation specialists at UPP. “The creatures had to look like they were built out of real ingredients from a single Lunchables packet, so the agency worked closely with their designers and food modellers (and kids!) to get the feel just right,” said John. “HOBBY then worked with the incredible VFX teams at UPP and Helmet to make sure the CGI creatures shared that same homemade feel, but heightened through the lens of a child’s imagination.”

The films were shot by DOP Snorre Ruhe. “Snorre is not only a whizz on the camera,” said John, “he also directs for HOBBY, so he brings a keen eye to scene composition and story development. That makes him a great asset on set to support Oskar’s awesomely cinematic directing style.”

This is Oskar’s second campaign for Lunchables. “It was fantastic to work with the client and agency again. The creative directors Daniel Righi and Kurt Mills at GS&P bring so much collaborative energy to the table. And the service company Metropolis Films went above and beyond,” recalled John. The three day shoot in Uruguay certainly made a lasting impression on the team. “I remember us all sitting around in the pre-production meeting sipping our Yerba Mates and soaking up the ambience. A certain copywriter had so much fun that he’s already back there now on vacation.”