NERD Reveals New Campaign for Bonjela Infant Teething Gel

Peek-a-boo! Sink your teeth into our latest online commercial for leading mouth care brand, Bonjela, as we follow the nail-biting journey all parents go through with a teething toddler on their hands. Animation director Corinne Ladeinde has just put her tools down on this stunningly hand-drawn ad. Teaming up with Havas, we explored various visual styles and techniques to develop the online film along with a brand-new hero baby for the launch of their teething gel. The ad takes us through the explorative and nerve wrecking journey of every parent that has a teething toddler on their hands and would try every ‘superpower’ until they discover the ultimate power – Bonjela!

A situation very relatable for almost every parent, the film leads us through our baby’s emotionally testing teething stage, as our parents try every trick in the book with no success. After tickles, toys, teddies and teasing... “splodge!”. The ultimate superpower of ‘Bonjela’ works its magic.

Corinne Ladeinde stated: “We were fortunate to be working with such a fun and creative brief for this project. I knew immediately after reading the script that I would love to bring it to life. The first challenge was personifying the tooth itself and giving it character, working out the perfect angle and ensuring that the tooth pain was comical but not unnerving. We didn’t want to creep people out.I really wanted the overall look to feel hand crafted so after the style was set, character puppets were created from illustrations in Photoshop and then rigged and animated in After Effects. This was blended with hand-drawn animation done frame by frame, for a smoother, authentic feel.”

Milana Karaica added: “It was a dream brief, in terms of the creative scope and from an incredibly passionate and talented as well as collaborative team at the agency. We were excited to be able to collaborate with an agency and a team that share our common goal to support, nurture and commission young directors, such as Corinne! To craft together from the early stages of the process meant that we were able to bring to life a new hero character that is iconic to the brand and a film that really brought together our varied skillset under a fresh young lead, Corinne.”