A knight’s tale: Guardium’s around the clock protection

Many of us are all too familiar with that uncomfortable feeling after a late-night take-away. Heartburn and indigestion brand, Gaviscon, have broken the mould of pharma advertising with their comical new campaign, which launches their new product for frequent heartburn sufferers: Guardium.

With a fantastical paradox featuring an extraordinary Guard and horse duo unusually situated within a mundane office space, global healthcare giants Reckitt Benckiser have created a modern, bright piece of advertising in collaboration with Havas. The campaign, directed by Simon Cole at Mad Cow films, not only features Guardium’s very own Guard, (and our characters’ knight in shining armour): it also gives prominence to an iconic CG fireman, created by Smoke & Mirrors, with the remainder of the post-production completed at Big Buoy and the edit by Nick Lofting from Flock edit.

Guardium – Knight

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Agency Havas/London
Production Company Mad Cow Films London
Director Simon Cole

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Credits

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Agency Havas/London
Production Company Mad Cow Films London
Director Simon Cole
CGI Smoke & Mirrors London
Post Production Big Buoy
Creative Director Dave Mygind
Producer Charlotte Lawrence
Producer Debbie Ragasa

Producer Jonas Blanchard
CG Character Designer and Animator William Torres
Senior CG Producer Lonneke Bertens
VFX Artist David Clifton
Flame Artist Eileen Chan
Nuke Artist Tommy Coulter-Liston
Colorist Mark Horrobin
Executive Producer Jenna Le Noury

Sound Designer Ben Leeves

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Our human protagonist, Julia, goes about her day as she usually would, as she explains to Colin, a co-worker who shares her incessant need for heartburn protection, the power of Guardium. Whether at the park, on a run or even tucked up in bed, the elephant (or horse) in the room, which remains invisible to everybody else, offers a slapstick metaphor to 24-hour protection.

Dave Mygind, Creative Director on the project, comments, “we’re really excited to launch this new brand with a kickass knight and a bit of a giggle. It’s disruptive for the category of ‘more serious’ heartburn, and as a new brand we’re hoping it’ll grab the right attention.”

Commenting on the CG character and its animation, Smoke & Mirrors’ Head of CG, Willie Torres, mentions that “maintaining the stereotypical image of a fireman, was key”, whilst “breathing new life into the animation” was an important stepping stone towards the development of a new brand.

Jenna Le Noury, Executive Producer at Big Buoy, adds, “It was wonderful to see the character of the Knight and the Horse develop and the relationship between the two evolve. Being on set to offer VFX supervision allowed us to pre-determine the ways in which we could enhance these elements in post. The entire tone of the film is super cool, playful and fun and that’s exactly what Charlotte, Dave, Simon and the whole team brought to every aspect of the production process!”