The London offices of Wieden + Kennedy have been making some weird shit for Stride gum over the past few years, and the group’s latest effort is certainly no exception.
This one in particular comes with a couple of big tie-ins, the first being a live TV event later this week in which a pro skydiver whose name we don’t recognize will “jump from a plane at 25,000 feet with nothing but the clothes on his back” and somehow live to tell the tale, Evil Knievel style. The other one is something about DJ Khaled taking over the brand’s Snapchat account in order to promote the same special, which will air on Fox this week.
Anyway, these spots kind of strike us as a cross between the Randy Savage Slim Jim ads by North Castle Partners and the W+K’s last campaign for SoCo in which Danny McBride flies over Detroit using only the power of his own body fat.
These ads were made in England like Elton John, but the target audience is obviously us.
See, the gum is both chewy AND crunchy. It also comes in various fruit flavors like lemon and raspberry, we think. Otherwise this next one is false advertising.
Finally, it’s kind of like a mobile game with your favorite characters … all in your mouth at once.
In the release, creative directors Freddie Powell and Hollie Walker said: “We’ve created an intense, irreverent and crucially-interactive Mouth character we can puppeteer on the fly. The potential for this and for Stride is what makes the campaign so exciting.”
Mondelez brand manager Shannon McLardie added, “Each aspect of the campaign helps to build and create the mad intense story of new Stride gum to give our consumers a constantly evolving and immersive experience into the brand.”
See, now we want to know how that dude will skydive with no parachute. It’s going to be one of those obviously fake David Blaine sort of stunts, isn’t it?
Credits
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
ACCOUNT MANAGER: Sophie Smith
TV PRODUCER: Genevieve Sheppard
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Hollie Walker / Freddie Powell
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Freddy Taylor/ Andrew Bevan
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Tony Davidson / Iain Tait
CREATIVE: Paddy Treacy / Mark Shanley
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: James McHoull
GROUP ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: Andrew Kay
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Danielle Stewart
ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Tom Dean
PLANNERS: Rachel Hamburger
MUSIC AND SOUND
SOUND MIX: Andy Stewart / Will Cohen @ String and Tins
POST PRODUCTION / VFX
POST PRODUCTION HOUSE: Glassworks
PRODUCTION COMPANY
LINE PRODUCER: James Lowery
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Dom Thompson-Talbot
DIRECTOR: Theo Nunn / Thomas Ormond
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Lisbon