Delivery companies are loud advertisers. Making your own voice heard is a challenge. Mother LA is making Postmates’ voice heard with a campaign that steps far away from the expected. It leads with a series of animated videos that illustrating the the emotions and memories that different food evoke and that Postmates delivers – evoke – the smell of spices dancing together in a boiling pot or the tantalising texture of ice cream in a cup (or cone). It shows how the food that you crave — a chemical reaction wired to your brain — unlocks a distinct, visceral feeling when you take your first bite.
The campaign, This Is Your Brain on Food, features popular food items from select local merchants available on the platform across Los Angeles, CA, and Austin, Texas.
“We loved the idea that eating certain foods can trigger full-body experiences ranging from euphoria to comfort to even a kind of pleasurable pain (think Nashville hot chicken). And that these could be summoned on demand through our app,” explainedDavid Kim, executive creative director of Postmates.
The full campaign spans short films, influencer partnerships, traditional OOH, and two commissioned OOH murals from LA artists. Every crafted aspect of the campaign reinforces Postmates as the brand that gets you and your irrational relationships with food by engagingly communicating that spot-on feeling each food elicits.
Because no food feeling is the same, Mother tapped different artists to interpret what your brain experiencing food might look like, ranging from boba tea and doughnuts to sushi, across out-of-home and film. Nexus Design Studio, the motion design division of production partner Nexus Studios, helped to identify the nine artists to create their interpretations through the animated VFX films. And to highlight Postmates’ best-of-class merchants, the campaign features merchants available through the Postmates app.
Short films:
Boba: Created by multi-hyphenate artist, Laurie Rowan. 3D CGI with 2D embellishments recreates the sensory experience of drinking a flavoursome boba tea.
Donuts: Features local merchant, The Salty (Austin). Created by illustrator and animator, Angela Kirkwood.
Howlin: Features local merchant, Howlin Rays (LA). Clay animation was created by animation filmmaker, Veronica Solomon, and animation director-painter, Gustaf Holtenäs.
Soup Dumplings: Features local merchant, Bao’d Up (Austin). Created by Emmy-nominated directing team, Shynola, using a mix of 3D and 2D techniques.
Sushi: Features local merchant, Katsu-Ya (LA). Created by Lina Reidarsdotter Källström and Louise Silfversparre of Double Up Studio using Cinema4D and Octane.
BBQ: Created by Shynola. While the monster was animated traditionally, Shynola used a unique technique to mirror the look of a celluloid scratch film. The animation frames were organised into ‘contact sheets’ and printed onto paper. Each one was painstakingly scratched onto sheets of acetate Shynola had prepared with acrylic spray, and then every acetate was fed into a high-resolution scanner and recompiled into animation.
“People are passionate about their food choices because eating is an emotional experience. What you eat says a lot about the headspace you’re in or want to be in. We created these little expressions, these little worlds that remind us what it feels like to eat that thing you love, from the spots you love the most. Almost euphoric. Postmates celebrates that trip with you every time you get the food you crave,” stated Dave Estrada, creative director, Mother.
On TikTok, Postmates engaged with creators such as @domenicaaq and @itsbridgettebitch. These campaign partners will provide their artistic takes on how food makes them feel. Content from the two creators is slated for later this month. Postmates and Mother also commissioned OOH murals from Los Angeles artists, Akiko Stehrenberger, visualising your brain on Nashville Hot Chicken, and Jen Stark, visualising your brain on Boba Tea.
The campaign’s five 15-second short films featuring doughnuts, hot chicken, sushi, boba, soup dumplings and BBQ are running on digital platforms in September; social channels including TikTok, Instagram, X, and Snapchat accompanied by a unique filter for users; and traditional OOH across Los Angeles and Austin featuring visuals from the short films.
“It was a perfect design challenge to communicate the sensation of food through stories across different animated styles. Some experiences are universal, for example, what the heat of spicy food feels like, but capturing how a sugar rush feels means different things to different people. We went incredibly specific in the aim of delivering something everyone can relate to,” commented Harry Butt, creative director, Nexus Design Studio.
