Dried pasta should be so easy to cook and yet, somehow, that delicious al dente texture the Italian restaurants so effortlessly perfect often seems to elude even the biggest pasta fans.
Leave the pan boiling for 30 seconds two long or too little, and it seems you either end up with overcooked mush or a bowl of something crunchy and inedible for dinner.
To help out home cooks, pasta brand Barilla and agency Publicis have created a solution by way of a collaboration with Spotify, which will see the brand release playlists designed to last for precisely as long as you should cook your pasta.
The activity, titled “Playlist Timer,” is a series of eight playlists timed to correspond with the perfect cooking time for shapes including spaghetti, linguine, fusilli and penne.
‘Mixtape Spaghetti’
Genres of music include pop, hip-hop, indie and hits from the past covered by Italian artists. Consumers need simply get the pasta boiling, hit play, and drain it when the music stops.
Titles of the playlists include Mixtape Spaghetti, Boom Bap Fusilli, Pleasant Melancholy Penne, Moody Day Linguine, Top Hits Spaghetti, Best Song Penne, Timeless Emotion Fusilli and Simply Classics Linguine.
You can listen to the Barilla playlists here:
Mixtape Spaghetti
Boom Bap Fusilli
Moody Day Linguine
Pleasant Melancholy Penne
Best Song Penne
Top Hits Spaghetti
Timeless Emotion Spaghetti
Simply Classics Linguine
Barilla is next in a growing line of brands looking to connect the experience of eating with the power of audio.
KFC in the U.K. and Ireland dipped a toe in the mindfulness trend by developing a series of calming sounds from recordings of frying chicken, simmering gravy, and sizzling bacon.
Last year, cheese brand Castello and Mother London created a campaign that explored the relationship between sound and taste. As part of the ad they had musicians interpret and play the flavor notes of the cheese while people were eating in a bid to intensify their senses.
CREDITS:
Global Chief Creative Officer Publicis WW: Bruno Bertelli
Chief Creative Officer Publicis Italy: Cristiana Boccassini
Executive Creative Director: Riccardo Fregoso
Associate Creative Director: Stefano Zanoni
Creative Supervisor: Roberto Ardigò
Digital Art Director: Mattia Leporale
Digital Copywriter: Jacopo Trotta
Global Client Service Director. David Pagnoni
Group Client Service Director: Federica Papetti
Account Manager: Dario Gambera
Head of Social Client Services and Strategy: Alessandro Bochicchio
Chief Strategy Officer. Bela Zienman
Strategy Director: Monica Radulescu
Senior Strategist: Margherita Tuvo
Head of Production: Francesca Zazzera
Senior Producer: Alessio Zazzera
Art Buyer: Caterina Collesano
