It has long been observed that the simplest product truths are the hardest to dramatize well, and that doing so twice is harder still.
Twix, the Mars-owned chocolate bar whose very name derives from "twin sticks," finds itself in this enviable predicament. After years of building campaigns around the fact that the candy comes as a pair — including the much-discussed "Cars" commercial from Adam&Eve\TBWA — the brand needed to prove that its creative platform had legs beyond a single execution. (Or perhaps, given the product, two legs.)
The answer, it turns out, involves ventriloquism.
"Double Act," the new global campaign from the same London agency, features a pair of bow-tied dummies performing in the vaudeville tradition. The idea emerged from what Matt Gay, an executive creative director at Adam&Eve, described as a sprawling development process that produced more than 80 scripts. Two creative teams had been formally assigned to the brief, but it also went onto the agency's so-called Wonderwall, an internal system that allows any team in the building to pitch.
The winning script came from Ben Robinson and Mike Whiteside, the same writers behind "Cars."
"The idea was simple," Mr. Gay said. "What is something you normally see one of and, if we had two, does it make it funnier and better?"
Fabio Ruffet, Mars's vice president of brands and content, recalled presenting the concept to the company's biannual creative council, a gathering of regional chief marketing officers. "I could see everyone's faces and it was an electric reaction," he said. "Everyone was laughing out loud, mixed in with a bit of disbelief."
The director is Dougal Wilson, whose credits include "Paddington in Peru" and advertisements for John Lewis, Apple and Channel 4. Mr. Wilson was one of three directors who received the brief; the decision was, according to Mr. Gay, "super, super tight."
The puppets themselves were built by Mr. Wilson's production company, Blink, in close collaboration with the agency. Their gold jackets and red bow ties draw directly from Twix packaging — the kind of detail that separates craft from mere execution.
Max Fulham, the ventriloquist who performs in the spot, arrived at auditions with his own dummy and launched into "Dilemma," the 2002 R&B song by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland. When he learned the brief required him to eat a Twix while the puppet continued to rap, he thought he might choke.
He did not choke. And so, for the second time in as many campaigns, Twix has found a way to make two of something better than one — which, come to think of it, is the only thing the brand has ever really needed to say.
Original story published in The Drum: "The making of Twix’s ‘Double Act’: 80 scripts, two dummies and one daunting follow-up | The Drum"