This chocolate ad is like a David Attenborough documentary and music video mashup

Mondelez-owned organic chocolate brand Green & Black's has dropped a new TV spot that's like a David Attenborough nature documentary mashed up with a music video.

The brand and agency VCCP tapped top director Kim Gehrig of Somesuch for the spot, which shows rainforest creatures including monkeys, birds and bees ferociously ripping apart cacao beans, plants and nuts for their goodness, set to the thrashing soundtrack of "Born Free" by M.I.A. The tagline is "Wildly. Deliciously. Organic."

The campaign which will also include out-of-home social, digital, and video on demand, was initially proposed by VCCP as part of its pitch for the Green & Black’s account, which it won in January 2020. Previously, Mcgarrybowen handled the brand in the U.K., with its work including a Red Riding Hood-themed spot. 

Made during the pandemic, the shoot mixed both archival footage and a live action shoots of the Green & Black's packaging and ingredients, with Gehrig directing remotely from L.A.

"Whereas some directors might consider the unknowns of stock footage a hurdle, Kim Gehrig embraced the advantages of portraying a much larger world than was possible to shoot during a global pandemic and on a challenging budget," said Caroline Rawlings, VCCP creative director, in a statement. "Jody Winterbottom and his team at The Directors Studio were briefed to give us the wildest, most visceral shots from nature and spent weeks and weeks searching through archive footage and sharing in a collaborative process between Kim, the editor and the creatives."

"Piece by piece the narrative took shape to give us the spine of an edit we could begin to fine tune. The film was so finely crafted to our track 'Born Free' by M.I.A, it was crucial for each shot to work hard and deliver our core idea," Rawlings added.“The team at Time Based Arts did an incredible job of applying a bold grade to liven the natural footage and introduce wild pops of color matching the vibrant range of Green & Black’s packaging,"