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Food is more than just sustenance––it can be a wild romp through a fiery hellscape in the case of Nashville hot chicken, or a joyride on a geyser of steaming hot broth if the dish is soup dumplings.
Digging into a flavorful favorite like barbecue or boba doesn’t just satiate hunger, it jumpstarts the nervous system, according to a new campaign from Postmates that draws a direct line between mealtime and synapses.
The work, called “This Is Your Brain on Food,” launches today with a series of animated short videos that bring to life the visceral pleasure of eating doughnuts, sushi and other noshes.
“We’re leaning into what it feels like when you take that first bite of some spectacular dish,” David Kim, executive creative director of Postmates, told Adweek. “Certain foods trigger a deep emotion, and that’s an insight that felt smart, unmined and uniquely Postmates.”
The campaign, from longtime agency of record Mother Los Angeles, is an evolution of the brand’s cravings-centric platform, “When All You Can Food Is Think About.”
It’s also a not-so-subtle nod to the iconic PSAs that debuted in the late 1980s under the banner “This Is Your Brain on Drugs.” Each spot opens with a disembodied head cracking open, a callback to the infamous eggs in a skillet.
Postmates and Mother took cues from those classic Partnership for a Drug-Free America spots, as well as MTV’s animated on-air logos and a scene from Disney’s Ratatouille in which a bite of food triggers a flood of memories for a central character.
‘Euphoric moment’
Because different types of food elicit various reactions, creatives hired a number of visual artists to interpret those experiences, saying a live-action version of the campaign would’ve been impossible.
The result is nine different animated shorts that range widely in their styles, including a peek into the sugar rush that comes from drinking boba tea. Hint: It’s a mashup of candy-colored psychedelia and video game play.
