Conceived by Leo Burnett, Chicago, the spot opens on a vampire couple who are interviewed in their suburban home. Admitting they were not “morning people,” the couple tells how their lives have been turned upside down by the crunchy taste of Nutri-Grain Fruit Crunch Bars. The whole family is now rising early and accomplishing much more. Dad even has time to walk the family bat.
The visual effects crews from Filmworkers and Vitamin contributed a number of effects to the spot, including a 3D bat that the vampire dad takes for a stroll. Vitamin artists went made the creature as realistic as possible and also drew inspiration from classic vampire films.
“Real bats are not all that interesting because they move too fast,” Vitamin creative director Danny DelPurgatorio said. “Instead, we took our bat into a more theatrical world and gave it a playful movement, as if often done in movies.”
Filmworkers applied additional effects work and completed final postproduction. Colorist Fred Keller applied the final color grade, using a Baselight system to give the spot a slightly macabre cast. “We gave it a vampire feel,” Keller said, “There’s not too much skin tone, but it still has an interesting color palette.”
DelPurgatorio found the cleverness of the spot’s concept made it fun to work on. “It was a great idea,” he said. “Our work needed to be subtle and to blend into the overall vision.”
