For When It's Time
Mars Wrigley, Extra Gum
Issue 60 | September 2021
Agency
Energy BBDO
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officers Josh Gross, Pedro Pérez Executive Creative Director Kenny Blumenschein Creative Directors Lucas Owens, Monique Kaplan, Colin O’Toole, Hansel Quintela
Production Team
Head of Design Hung Vinh Head of Integrated Production John Pratt Producer Annie Burger Project Manager Kate Gothing 3D Motion Designer Jaehyuk Choi Production Company MJZ (LA) Director: Nick Ball
Other Credits
Account Director Lauren Randall Account Supervisor Lucie Lavrard Account Executive Emma Rehnberg Global Strategy Director Ryan Smith Client Global Vice President Brands, Content & Media Rankin Carroll Senior Director Brands & Content Europe Brad Cole Manager Brands & Content Europe Chantal Barcelona Senior Manager, Brands & Content, NA Chanel Gant (Chile)
Date
May 2021
Background
When COVID arrived, consumers almost forgot about gum entirely. No school, no work, no dates and definitely no hugs or first kisses. Sales declined on a global scale. To save the category, Wrigley’s needed to bring back those emotional moments of human connection that had been associated with the brand in previous times.
Idea
The idea was to anticipate how, in the not-too-distant future, people around the world would be able to re-enter society in a big way. The film dramatised how joyous the return to the world could be. How great it would feel to finally squeeze into a pair of jeans, freshen up with a stick of gum and take to the streets, awkwardly hugging, kissing and socialising.
Results
With one film, Wrigley’s managed to tap into a massive cultural moment that not only reminded millions of people why they needed gum but also made Extra the only gum they thought about as they got back out there.
The launch struck a chord and was covered by outlets like The Today Show, The New York Times Magazine, and The Daily Telegraph amassing 250 million impressions from earned media coverage and 95% positive sentiment for campaign mentions.
The two-minute 35-second film collected over 6.6 million views, at an average view time of one-minute and 52-seconds with comments such as, ‘the ad we didn’t know we needed’ or ‘made me cry and laugh at the same time.’
Our Thoughts
The comments in YouTube really are that positive. ‘This is hands down the best quarantine commercial ever made, just hopeful happiness. I forgot I had a heart.’ Large parts of the world are still under the yoke of Covid and even those countries that are cautiously trying to return to some sort of normality are in no hurry to discover the true costs.
This ad is so welcome because it’s silly. But in its silliness it expresses more optimism than any other message around or about Covid that I can recall.
One YouTube comment is, ‘Future generations will come across this and wonder, what the hell?’ I hope that’s true.
