The creative idea was wonderfully unusual: treat the food as characters, keep as much of the magic in camera as possible, and blend practical puppetry with animation to create a spot that felt handmade, playful, and full of life.
Hug Your Food
Character Division puppetry, fresh tortillas and one ridiculously catchy jingle join forces and delight millions.
Hug Your Food was a digital campaign built around quick and easy recipes to turn leftovers in to delicious meals made with Dempster’s tortilla wraps.
The Brief
What We Did
We worked with the agency and production team to develop the practical performance approach for the shoot, creating extremely simple rods and puppet rigs that allowed real tortillas and ingredients to be performed on set. Those live-action elements were then enhanced in post with tracking, clean-up, and simple, but expressive animated faces, transforming everyday food into a cast of expressive little personalities.
The result was a distinctive musical ad that earned millions of online views and turned a straightforward recipe campaign into something memorable, character-led, and fun.
Production Stills
“Hug Your Food” and all associated elements © Maple Leaf Foods