With the business of everyday life, we all need some timeout to reconnect with our inner peace. While others can afford a little getaway to unwind, sometimes all you need is a good soulful meal to get you there. Chicken Licken’s new advert takes viewers on an expedition from Cairo to Jozi, in a quest to find inner peace.
Joe Public is an advertising agency that has proven that the sky is the limit; their previous ad set out to space with the young afronaut, Tshabalala, who was taken by the then Chicken Licken tagline, ‘When the craving has got you, It’s got you’ as he eats his colleague’s Feed My Craving meals.
This was Joe Public’s first project for the Chicken Licken brand and it won over the late CEO and founder of Chicken Licken, George Sombonos.
This time around, the agency’s new spot for the famous chicken brand takes viewers on an Egyptian/African tour, with the ad expanding to a digital game format and a movie collaboration.
“We have admired the work of Chicken Licken for many years as it is one of South Africa’s brands that truly do stand out commercials. We are very grateful that we have the opportunity to do high calibre brand communication for such a legendary and trusting client. Since getting them as a client, we have a ‘restless’ hunger to keep doing great work,” says Roanna Williams, the executive creative director of Joe Public.
Their brief was to create a campaign for Chicken Licken’s, Rock My Soul product that’s packed with ‘soul fire.’
The agency had their entire creative department involved in the brainstorming and conceptual process. “The process included many late nights of brainstorming over Rock My Soul meals; a number of lengthy reviews; a shortlist of three (concepts) and then the winner,” explains Williams. The winning concept video earned over 1 000 views on YouTube in 2.5 days of being online.
The storyline begins near the Great Pyramid of Giza with archaeologist, Archie. His excavations near the pyramids accidently lead to him falling into a pyramid. A curious Archie opens a tomb and wakens an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the great Hor-Aha, who has been sleeping peacefully for thousands of years.
A frantic Hor-Aha threatens to curse him, but Archie pleads with him and assures the pharaoh that he knows where he can find his inner peace again. The two then set off on a sightseeing journey that takes them into Africa until they reach Johannesburg. Here, Archie takes the great Hor-Aha into a Chicken Licken store and offers him the new Rock My Soul 3 Straight meal. The pharaoh takes his first bite, we then see him returning to his tomb, and taking the rest of his meal with him. His restless soul is finally satisfied.
Dean Blumberg of production company Bouffant directed the ad: “It was bold, epic and a little crazy. The agencies had a strong vision for the commercial but were incredibly collaborative in allowing us to bring ideas and our own stamp to the film,” he comments.
The main characters – Archie, a 30-something South African archeologist and Hor-Aha, the 6 000 year old Egyptian pharaoh – were both cast in South Africa while the commercial was shot in Egypt as well as South Africa.
“We worked hard to create a very filmic feel that was a hybrid of 80’s style adventure films and some classic 50’s technicolour nostalgia,” tells Blumberg.
Wardrobe designer, Moira Meyer worked on the styling of the characters, which Blumberg describes as “authentic costumes with the most incredible textures to film,” which he says made his job as a director much easier.
Archie is described as the quirky cool and smart dude (a Licken guy) – an explorer type – so Meyer decided to style him like Harrison Ford from the Raiders of the Lost Ark, while the pharaoh’s costume took inspiration from the film Tutankhamun.
In the spot, the journey to find inner peace starts in the desert and then heads to the busy marketplace of Cairo where the pharaoh feels unsettled by the people there and turns a vendor into a frog.
In Sudan they purchase a car from a shocked dealer who sees the pharaoh protruding from the roof top in an attempt to ride the car as one would a horse. The pair then set off on a dusty trail where they pass Kenya, catching a glimpse of the Kenyan tribal men. A stop in Tanzania sees the two enjoying themselves on a beach where a much happier Hor-Aha asks Archie if they have found inner peace yet, to which Archie responds that they have not.
They finally land in Johannesburg where Hor-Aha is uncomfortable with an airport search. Archie then takes the pharaoh to a Chicken Licken eatery. The pharaoh is seen taking great delight in the taste of his meal, but then suddenly he disappears, leaving bystanders and Archie amazed at the dust left behind.
As Archie tries to grab the Pharaoh’s meal that is also left behind, it disappears into thin air, only to be seen with Hor-Aha in the next scene, back in his tomb in Egypt.
“Balancing humour and adventure; it’s a strange tone and as the filming advanced, the story just grew. We could have made a ten minute short film; however you always have to keep your eye on what the original intention of the story is and not get lost in what the potential exotic locations can offer,” Blumberg says.
Blumberg had the challenge of working with two production companies. In Egypt, he worked with a team from Egypt Productions and was lucky to find an African fixer named Durand Le Sueur to get them to all the sights needed in the brief.
“We shot pyramids, the ancient streets of Cairo, the desert and the Egyptian souks in Egypt. Tanzania and the Sudan were shot near Langebaan, Kilimanjaro was shot in the Cradle of Humankind, and the tomb was shot on set in Johannesburg.”
An array of equipment was used to shoot the spot which included the Arri Alexa Mini and the Panavision G-series Anamorphic Lenses. “The Alexa is a great nimble camera with incredible colour space. The lenses are some of the best in the world and the anamorphic expression has been my preference since I began directing. They carry a real film weight and show facial expression beautifully,” shares Blumberg.
The ad was completed with final touches done by Fresh VFX, Stuart Botha and Bradley Glossop. “They helped me bring some of the locations which we could not travel to, to us. Their work on Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam was fantastic,” Blumberg remarks.
Once the big project was out of the way, the Joe Public Connect team stepped in to create a digital online experience. In the game the pharaoh’s rest will be disturbed yet again but this time by people visiting his tomb on the Rock My Soul website (www.rockmysoul.co.za).
On the website, the player is tasked with returning the pharaoh back to his eternal slumber by matching hieroglyphic symbols to play out various scenes which may or may not help the pharaoh in his quest to find true inner peace in the form of the Rock My Soul 3 meal once again.
The online game goes live on 9 June 2017, together with a two-minute cinema commercial which will capitalise on the local
TECH CHECK
EQUIPMENT:
- Camera: The Arri Alexa Mini
- Lens: Panavision G-series Anamorphic Lenses
“The lenses are some of the best in the world and the anamorphic expression has been my preference since I began directing.” – Blumberg
“The Alexa is a great nimble camera with incredible colour space…” – Blumberg
KEY CREW:
Director: Dean Blumberg
Producer: Chanelle Critchfield
DOP: Adam Bentel
DIT: Owen Bruce
Art Director: Christopher Bass
Wardrobe Designer/Stylist: Moira Meyer
Make-up: Debra Nicoll
Focus: John Papas (JHB/Cairo) / Justin McGillivray (CPT)
AD: Sheila van Zyl (JHB) / Coenie van Dyk (CPT/Cairo)
Key Grip: WD du Plessis (Jhb/Cairo) / Elrick Davids (CPT)
Gaffer: Andre Beumer (JHB) / Grant Forbes (CPT)
