Jake Mengers Shows a Softer Side for Cushelle

Two years ago Jake Mengers, director at MPC Creative, oversaw a spot through Fallon London inviting us into a fluffy world of fantasy for tissue brand Cushelle. Introducing its Koala mascot playfully bouncing around to promote the softness of the company’s product, the commercial was a glimpse of what was to come for the character and he has since spawned his own web series, targeting child fans via Cushelle’s YouTube Channel.

In the latest development to the brand story, this week a new commercial (above) launched with Mengers once again at the helm. Taking the character to a whole new level by thrusting him into an advanced and dynamic world, the new film places the viewer into the position of a gamer as if controlling Koala on his platform adventure and is an entertaining watch, full of detail.

Here the MPC Creative talent explains how his own love of old school games helped his visuals, takes us through some of the concept challenges for the job and reveals which classic ad also lent inspiration.

Tell us about the starting point, deciding your approach and the steps involved for a job like this?

The base brief from Fallon involved Koala finding himself in a computer game where everything around him is hard and pixelated. He ventures through the levels, using his ‘Whoosh 3000’ to make the world softer.

After receiving the brief I set about developing the treatment and storyboarding the different levels within the game world. I then worked with our 3D department to create an animatic, getting a feel for the timings to produce the offline.

What games did you take inspiration from for the look of the computer world you created?

I wanted the spot to be a bit of an homage to gameplay over the years, so the inspiration comes from iconic games such as Paper Mario and Wreck-it-Ralph. I also looked at the gameplay from Subway Surfers and Temple Run; incorporating the visual references into the world I was concepting.

Pixels by Patrick Jean was also included. The short film depicts a real-world New York being attacked by 8-bit creatures, so was a great reference for this spot.

And did you have to watch Cushelle’s cartoon series for inspiration about the character traits of Koala or was it completely separate?

I had created the previous Cushelle commercial, Cloud Factory, a couple of years ago and I think the cartoon series has taken its cues from the character traits and movement we had developed previously.

For how long did you work on the concept sketches?

The concept took around two weeks. That involved the VFX team developing everything from the look of the environment to the ‘Whoosh 3000’, the backpack, cloud canyon, trees, dandelion, spiky balls – the works!

What was the most challenging thing to sketch, design and build out of all the objects and game features?

The environment, especially the look of the pixelated trees, was the hardest thing to get right. The 3D team ended up developing a new bespoke software tool that meant some elements in the game would appear as cubes instead of pixels, so they would hold up as the camera pans past them. Keeping all the levels consistent became quite a challenge too.

Creating a world within a world was a whole lot of fun. The spot has everything you would expect from a real game; obstacles, rewards and a ‘soft-o-metre’ showing the little guys progress. He still retains his original cute appeal, but with added comedy-action elements. I hope everyone likes the new spot as much as we do.

Were you a Sega or Nintendo kid and what was your favourite game title growing up?

I was a Nintendo kid but as I’m a bit of an oldie. I was only really a child for the early handheld Nintendo Game & Watch – Atari was also quite big in my youth but I wasn’t allowed one at home.