J. Walter Thompson has drawn inspiration from the schlock movie, An
American Werewolf in London, in its launch campaign for Nestle
Rowntree’s first Lion Bar variant, Peanut Lion.
The 30-second ad, entitled ’lion in London’, is set in a zoo and aims to
show the peanut snack bringing out the beast within the eater.
The commercial opens with the hero waking up from a deep sleep to find
himself lying naked in a cage next to a lion. An irate zoo-keeper bangs
on the bars of the cage shouting: ’Oi, what do you think you’re doing?’.
The young man is clearly alarmed to find himself in such a bizarre
situation and struggles to recall the events of the previous night.
In a disconnected flashback, he remembers buying a Peanut Lion bar at a
kiosk and then eating it. We see passers-by suddenly becoming alarmed by
his appearance. He enters a club and the bouncers on the door move aside
in terror to let him pass. Inside, he meets a strange girl in a
leopardskin dress who, unlike the rest, does not seem scared. The
flashback ends as the man’s lion face returns to human form.
Back in the zoo, we suddenly realise the girl from the club is also in
the cage, and is also naked. Embarrassed, the pair flee from the zoo,
stealing a coat from a park bench to conceal their nakedness, as the
zoo-keeper yells at them: ’I’ve warned you about this before.’ The
endline reads: ’Peanut Lion. It’s a totally different animal.’
The film was created at JWT by the copywriter, Giles Etherington, and
the art director, Matthew Lloyd. It was directed by Thed Lenssen through
Hungry Eye Films.
’Lion in London’ breaks next Monday on national terrestrial and
satellite television. Media planning and buying is through JWT, which
manages Nestle’s centralised buying account.
Angus Fear, the JWT director-in-charge on Nestle, commented: ’This range
extension is a totally different animal and that is reflected in the
advertising.’
