Oatly has brought its wild puppet show to Australia. The New Norm&al Show is a mini-series of five episodes, each between two and five minutes long, featuring two oat drink carton puppets, Normal & Al (aka Norm-al). In episode one, Norm’s Old Pal Milk, you’ll learn how Norm became plant-based in a parody coming out scene. You’ll also learn that Norm and Milk used to be mates in the “old days” when they also smoked and raved. Norm has now “grown up”. Milk is the jealous “old friend”, who hasn’t. In episode five, Behind The Scenes, you’ll learn how the series came about. Norm tells Al, “We’re from inside the minds of some pretty disturbed people at Oatly, who decided using puppets was the best way to talk about the importance of a plant-based diet…”
Those “pretty disturbed people” work at the Oatly Department of Mind Control, the company’s in-house agency.
The series teaches viewers that anyone can try adopting a plant-based diet, you don’t have to be a hipster to make the move away from dairy or meat and you don’t need to go fully vegan in order to make a difference to the planet. The series delivers its message in ways as unsubtle as messages can be.
Oatly creative director, Michael Lee, commented, “After trying to help people eat more plant-based with super long Instagram posts, a dorky AFL Grand Final ad and nonsensical headlines, we’ve now landed on puppets to do the job. The New Norm&Al helps us deliver a message that people might normally roll their eyes at, but because it’s puppets, well, who doesn’t like puppets?”
The series was directed by Annie-nominated director, Conor Finnegan. The puppets are by puppet maker, Andy Gent, who is best known for Wes Andersen’s stop motion epic feature Isle of Dogs. The voice cast includes Alexander Perkins (The Office) who plays Norm, Ethan Lawrence (After Life) who plays Al, and Rob Witcomb (Transformers: The Last Knight) who plays Milk.
All five episodes of The New Normal Show are now live on YouTube and Oatly.com.au. The launch is also supported by a digital media buy campaign across social media (YouTube, Instagram and Facebook) and broadcast VOD (7Plus, 10Play, 9Now and SBS On Demand) until 3 April 2022. In classic Oatly fashion, consumers can also expect to see the campaign run across OOH on buses and trams until April 10 in Melbourne.
In retail, Norm & Al will be making an appearance through stickers, wobblers and more in 20 specially selected independent retailers. Through a partnership with Woolworths, the puppets will also be popping up in more than 90% of stores across the country. From March 25 to 26, Oatly will also give away thousands of sample oat coffees in special Norm&Al cups from overc35 cafes around Australian cto anyone who quotes, “I like puppets” at the till.
In addition to the digital, OOH and retail campaigns, Oatly has partnered with grocery delivery company, Milkrun, in Sydney this week to deliver free samples of Oatly Barista Edition with every order made on Milkrun for as long as stock lasts.
Milkrun head of creative, Matt Knapp, says: “When Oatly approached us to give out 5,000 free cartons of oat milk to our loyal customers we were a little apprehensive. What would they think about a company called Milkrun giving out something that technically isn’t milk? But then we realised people love free sh*t, so we jumped at the opportunity.”
Credits:
Creative: Oatly Department of Mind Control
Creative Director: Michael Lee
Production Company: Nexus Studios
Director: Connor Finnegan
