David Attenborough may be ninety-four years-old old but he is very much part of the in-crowd right now. VCCP and Australian expat director, Kim Gehrig, have borrowed the essence of Attenborough in what can only be described as a nature documentary-music video-commercial, for Mondelez’ organic chocolate brand, Green & Black’s.

When it comes to chocolate advertising – and when it comes to organic food advertising – this commercial is striking a very new path. The spot, which shows rainforest birds and animals ripping into cacao beans, plants and nuts as well as the evolution of cacao into Green & Black’s chocolate (thanks to some clever representations of chocolate as icebergs and rock faces) is set to the pounding song, Born Free, by M.I.A.

You can almost believe that Green & Black’s chocolate is healthy – at the very least you will feel that its ingredients are.

Caroline Rawlings, VCCP creative director, commented, “We wanted to create a campaign that completely immersed you in the flavours of nature. Not the serene nature that we’re used to associating with organic food, but the wild, brutal, visceral, unadulterated nature where the best organic flavours are enjoyed. Not missing a drop of juice or a shard of nut. An assault on the senses. Kim got it straight away and her and her brilliant team made a film that exceeded all of our expectations of how a film made during a pandemic would end up.”

The campaign was made during Covid and the commercial mixes archival footage and a live action shoots of the Green & Black’s packaging and ingredients, with Gehrig directing remotely from LA. The full campaign is running across OOH, social, digital, VOD and TV and was initially proposed by VCCP as part of its pitch for the Green & Black’s account during a competitive process. The agency became the lead strategic and creative agency for Green & Black’s in January 2020. The new campaign, Made of Nature, is the continuation of Green & Black’s existing campaign, which launched in October 2020.

David Clements, marketing activation director, Green & Black’s, stated, “We are very excited to show what the brand stands for with our new campaign, taking Green & Black’s back to nature. It’s capturing the idea of flavour in a completely new way, with a feast for the eyes and an assault on the senses.”

Green & Black’s founders, Craig Sams and Jo Fairley, added, “It’s really gratifying, satisfying and fills us with pride at the way you’ve taken the brand and moved it upwards and onwards, sticking to our founding principles and making it such a wonderful product. We think it’s going to blow everyone away!”

Credits:

Agency: VCCP
Executive Creative Director: Darren Bailes
Creative Director: Caroline Rawlings
Creative Team: Chris Russell & Ahmed Ellabib
Planning Director: Gethin James
Senior Planner: Sophie Binns
Business Director: Matt Smith
Group Managing Director: David Boscawen
Senior Account Director: Clare Greenhalgh
Account Manager: Issi Lloyd-Waite
Producer: Ed Mueller
Digital Producer: Shanna Rogan

Media Agency: Carat

Production Company: Somesuch
Director: Kim Gehrig

Producer: Tom Gardner
Executive Producer: Seth Wilson
Director Of Photography: Daniel Landin
Production Designer: Marie Lanna
Food Stylist: Katie Giovanni

SFX: Machine Shop
Editing:  Thomas Grove Carter @ Trim

Post-Production: Time Based Arts
Colourist: Simone Grattarola
VFX Lead: Stevo Grasso
VFX Producer: Jo Gutteridge

Sound Design & Mix: Anthony Moore
Audio Producer: Lucy Spong
Audio Company: Factory

Client: Green & Black’s
Brand Manager: Susanne Nowak
Marketing Activation Director: David Clements
Senior Category Director Confectionery Northern Europe: Francesco Vitrano