Snickers, Mr Bean, ancient China & the ‘Fist of Hunger’
In an unprecedented global collaboration with AMV-BBDO London, BBDO China has aired its own version of the Kung Fu themed TVC. In the China spot, Mr Bean plays to a slightly different hungry behaviour, which sets up the concept of the ‘Fist of Hunger’ that is used throughout the integrated campaign.
The jointly developed and produced script is the first instance of full global collaboration across the Mars-BBDO network, and ensures that the work could run conscious of the cultural nuances of each market – for example great care was taken to stay true to the period and costume of classical kung fu fighters from Chinese ‘WuXia’ stories like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
“This is the first time we have shared our global resources and used our agency’s global network in this manner. It’s a testament to the Snickers brand to be able to cooperate in this way to deliver a campaign of such scale, which neither market would have been able to achieve individually,” Clarence Mak, President of Mars (Food) China and Global Leader on Snickers stated.
In the full China campaign, consumers are also treated to an elaborate backstory of Bean arriving in China to prepare for what he believes to be a Kung Fu movie deal, only to inadvertently discover his own fighting style, the ‘Fist of Hunger’.
Rowan Atkinson was brought to China to make his very first appearance as Mr Bean on the popular 80s Talkshow program.
The campaign reinforces and refreshes the ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ platform, and for the first time places the brotherhood situation into a fictional setting. Using a globally recognised character and with the depth and scale of collaboration between these two huge markets, sets a precedent for developing future global copy for Mars and BBDO.
