Droga5's CCO on Rustling Feathers for Rustlers

Droga 5 is no stranger to comedy. Following the release of the London's office latest offering for hamburger/sandwich company Rustlers earlier this morning, CCO David Kolbusz reveals why humour was the best way to communicate the brand's message and shares the realities of bringing the spot to life.

The ‘ What a time to be alive’ tagline fits so well with the Rustlers brand. What was the brief for the spot and how did you interpret it?

The brief for the campaign was "Great taste from great beef", but the problem we encountered was that greatness is relative. Even though Rustlers burgers are delicious and their meat has outstanding provenance, they have a bit of an image problem. So we decided to reframe Rustlers' greatness in the context of human history - which has been littered with tragedy and suffering. These days you can get a delicious flame-grilled burger prepared and ready to eat in 90 seconds. This beats being conscripted to war any day of the week.  We felt like this was cause for celebration, hence "What a Time to Be Alive".

Initially, the spot seems to be a bleak reflection of the times, but it ends with a comical climax. Why did you decide that humour was the best way to communicate this message and was it easy/difficult to use humour as a way of storytelling?

Positioning a burger as the solution to all our main characters' problems gave us the opportunity to both treat the food with reverence and use it as a comedic device. Brands are constantly trying to convince consumers that their product or service can save or improve their lives, when in reality they can't. We liked the idea of puncturing that myth while feeding into it - positioning this microwaveable burger as the apex of a humanity and evidence that we live in an incredible age. When you break it down, though, it's a credible argument. If you'd evidenced this technology to someone 100 years ago you'd be burned at the stake for witchcraft.

Tell me about the casting process… You’ve obviously used many different actors to depict the main character, so what features if any were you looking for? 

We had a great prosthetics guy but they can only do so much. Your cast, throughout time, needs to look the same. We got really lucky with a couple of guys who could've been father and son in real life. Most important for us in the actors' aesthetics was that just by looking at them you were left with the impression that they'd been beaten up by life.

Were there any particular challenges that you had to overcome in bringing the spot to life?

It was actually a pretty easygoing process once we were in production. We were worried we didn't have a cast, and then we did. We had an impossible number of set ups to get through in three days of shooting, but then we did. We were worried our clients Adrian and Elaine would think it was too extreme but we showed them the first cut and they loved it. It's been a pretty smooth experience. And now that I've said that, something terrible is going to happen to me.

How much do you enjoy working on comedy campaigns?

We at Droga5 London love working on campaigns that are witty but grounded in human insight, but we also love making work that is curious, beautiful, and innovative too. We don't have an expressed preference for a particular genre. We try and create work that is relevant and influential, and we try to surprise ourselves in the process.