Twelve executions launch in December on six-sheet poster sites in cities throughout the UK to attract maximum awareness among consumers and the trade.
The executions feature the same creative premise of showing a face both in "merry" and "down" expressions, and were created by artists including the BAFTA winner Gary Baseman, and Jeff Fisher, who designed the book cover for Captain Corelli's Mandolin. The campaign was written and art directed by Dave Dye and Sean Doyle, the CDD joint creative directors.
The initial launch burst of poster and flyposters was planned and bought by Rocket and will be supported by a roll-out of a further 12 executions in the spring, with the idea rolled out across other sales promotion initiatives and packaging. CDD is also planning to publish a book of the first 100 executions.
CDD's managing director, Alison Hoad, said: "Merrydown is a brand that people associate with the past. It needed to be dusted off and made to feel of today."
Dye added: "We picked 12 of our favourite artists from around the world and, fortunately, they agreed to do it. You couldn't do it for any other product in the world, which goes to show what good branding it is."