It's Not Nuts, It's Peanuts
Peanuts, long relegated to the fine print of ingredient lists and sideline snacks, are finally getting the hype they deserve.
The new campaign from Special US and the National Peanut Board puts the classic nut front and centre as source of fuel and fun. Anthony Farquhar-Smith directed, following a tiny but outlandish group of friends as they power through a whole host of activities, including peanut butter diving, a PB smoothie spa, and footy on toast (spread with the good stuff).
Including several social films, a 30s and a bunch of eye-grabbing OOH, the campaign makes a big thing out of peanuts, namely by shrinking down everything around them. Filmed in camera, this unmissable project marries classic filmmaking techniques and high-tech advancements, like 3D-printing an inch-tall Gen-Z rock climber called Nico almost 200 times.
Taking real peanuts and food as a starting point, after dreaming up the group of nut-sized buddies and the scenarios they would find themselves in, each film and still was first modelled in CG. Every character in every frame was 3D printed, and we used these models to recreate each scene IRL over the shoot. The scale was minuscule, and it took an extremely talented team to pull it together, from the painters who coloured each of the 800 figurines by hand to the camera department who had to use several specialist lenses to capture all the action.Â
"It was great being constantly urged to make the films as nuts as possible, not only in their stories but also in their visual look. You could say we went a little nuts in the method we used to make these films."
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