Mini Menaces Break The Rules in New Ella’s Kitchen Ad from Great Guns’ Ben Brand

For years, we have been teaching children not to play with their food; Ella’s Kitchen, however, has a fresh perspective. In line with their ‘Eat. Play. Love.’ slogan, the brand preaches that when mealtime is playtime, love for food lasts a lifetime. Its spirited new ad, delivered by Havas London and Great Guns, shows us just that.

Directed by Great Guns’ Ben Brand, the ad opens inside an art gallery. Quiet and austere, we hear only the shuffling of feet - until the music kicks in and a giggling gang of tots waddle onto the scene. So begins the countdown to chaos. Following the toddlers, we find them gazing up at a looming art installation made up of a selection of fruits and vegetables, ordering them in huge letters: ‘DON’T PLAY WITH FOOD.’ Refusing to pay heed, the little troublemakers gleefully tear the message apart and tuck in, leaving a new slogan in their wake: ‘DO PLAY WITH FOOD.'

Creative agency Havas London approached Great Guns with the idea to have a swarm of little ones trashing and devouring a delicious, edible art installation reading ‘Don’t play with food’ until it read ‘Do play with food.’ The only element left unclear was the location. Keen to visualise the playful pitch, Great Guns director Ben Brand pondered what location held the message ‘Don’t play. Don’t touch.’ at its core, eventually hitting upon the answer: an art gallery. Solemn and stern, the backdrop stands in perfect dramatic contrast to the giggling toddlers.

Working on a budget, hiring a gallery was out of the question. So, the team at Havas Studios and Great Guns built one in the studio, which also solved the problem of where to house the ad’s stars: 20 tiny tots. The nature of the playful performers meant that safety needed to be at the forefront when constructing the set, too. For the central art installation, the team worked to strike a balance between building something visually appealing and secure, that didn’t offer a choking hazard or any other safety concerns. At a certain point, however, the goal was just to induce pure chaos - and what better way to do that than to put together 20 little terrors.

Ben Brand, director at Great Guns, comments: “This really was one of the most intense shoots I’ve ever done. We managed to build a safe art installation and a real-looking gallery, working with 20 babies and shooting over 25 shots in a single day. We thought that by filming the easiest shots first, we’d get off to a good start, but even those offered challenges: the first kids directly started crying, and the second bunch crawled away. In the end, though, we incorporated the parents into the process and managed to come up with several tricks to capture the kids’ attention - and the end result is as chaotic as desired.”