Droga5 Exalts the Human Body in Eye-Catching Ads for Supplement Maker Thorne

Health, the final frontier… 

In its first push for Thorne, a provider of dietary supplements and at-home wellness tests, Droga5 vividly casts the human body’s internal systems—respiratory, nervous and circulatory—as limitless territories for exploration.
 
“Humans have always been driven to explore the ends of the earth, the oceans below, and soaring into the universe above,” a youthful narrator says in the colorful, minute-long CGI-fest of a film below. “Yet, for all the great boundaries we’ve pushed, the one with the most to teach us, is the closest to us. Our health is the next limit to defy. Because the next frontier isn’t miles beyond us. It’s within.” 

“We were primarily talking to people who are active in trying to be as well and as healthy as they can—people who are interested in any new supplement or means to improve how their body works,” Droga5 group creative director Juliana Cobb tells Muse. “The campaign shows the reverence that Thorne has for the human body, seeing it as a beautiful thing to be respected and treasured.”

Such themes were on display over the weekend at Studio 525 in New York City’s Chelsea district, where the brand invited gallery visitors to take “inner selfies” via sensors that captured biometric data and visualized it on a large screen: 

“Thanks to beautiful music and sound design from Plan8, and a meditative, thought-provoking narration, the user’s experience was as spiritual as it is scientific,” Cobb says. “People were genuinely moved and uplifted by their experiences.” 

For those bodies that couldn’t attend, here’s a web experience that travels similar shimmering paths. 

Go ahead, share that inner selfie! (Sending snaps of the stuff beneath your skin can’t get you arrested. Probably.) 

Kidding aside, the campaign does a fine job of portraying our bodies as mysterious, gorgeous worlds primed for fantastic voyages of discovery—which, of course, they are. 

Even if this concept isn’t original—and works best with Raquel Welch as one’s traveling companion—there’s appealing visual poetry on display, and the idea that one’s physiology should be revered from the inside out certainly feels on brand. 

“There’s nothing like seeing your body breathing air, circulating blood and working live to make you truly connect with it and appreciate how powerful and beautiful it is,” Cobb says. 

CREDITS

Client: Thorne
Campaign: The Frontier Within

Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Neil Heymann
Group Creative Director: Juliana Cobb
Creative Director: Victor Monclus Gonzalez
Creative Director: Ray Smiling
Associate Creative Director: Henry Kember
Copywriter: Abe Chuang
Copywriter: Diana Perez
Copywriter: Daniel Litzow
Art Director: Belen Marquez: 
Art Director: Astrid Andujar
Creative Technology Director: Brian Moore
Junior Creative Technologist: Ethan Anderson
Group Experience Design Director: Craig Wong
Design Director: Nate Moore
Associate Design Director: Dan Pulito
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale 
Co-Director, Experiential Production: Justin Durazzo
Director of Film Production: Jesse Brihn 
Producer, Film + Experiential: Isabella Lebovitz
Producer, Interactive + Experiential: Aaron Matys
Senior Producer, Interactive: Alyssa Cashman
Business Affairs Manager: Daniel McCarthy
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director: Ben Brown
Senior Strategist: Kaveri Gautam: 
Chief Media Officer: Colleen Leddy
Head of Communications Strategy: Dean Challis: 
Group Communications Strategy Director: Samantha Deevy
Group Communications Strategy Director: Dominic Poynter
Communications Strategy Director: Courtney Bernstein 
Communications Strategy Director: Samantha Sutantio
Communications Strategist: Kathryn Rhyne
Chief Intelligence Officer: Amy Avery
Group Data Strategy Director: Anthony Khaykin: 
Data Strategy Director: Christina Fieni
Senior Data Strategist: Tradd Salvo
Group Account Director: : Alex Woods
Account Director: : Liz Federico
Account Manager: Jeff Winsper
Account Manager: Andrew Mullen
Project Manager: Rachel Murad: 
Business Manager: Dan McCarthy

Client: Thorne
Chief Executive Officer: Paul Jacobson
Chief Marketing Officer: Michelle Crow
Chief Technology Officer: Scott Hurth
Director, Digital: Rianne Lund
Director, Creative: Jerod Gibson
Growth Marketing Associate: Touria Carson
SEM Manager: Brittany Eggert

Activation & Film
Concept & Direction: Marshmallow Laser Feast
Creative Directors: Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin, Robin
McNicholas
Executive Producer: Eleanor (Nell) Whitley
Producer:: Bob Ford
Production Manager: Alex Wilshire

Film
VFX Animation: Erik Ferguson
Additional VFX: Vegard Aarhus
Houdini Artis: Johan Gardfeld
Modelling: Khye Kading
Director of Photography: James Medcraft
Grade: : Vic Parker @ Raised by Wolves
Post Production: Absolute Post
Offline Editor: Jess Scott Hunter
Storyboard Artist: Rob Pybus

Activation
Technical Direction: Artists & Engineers
Electronics Engineer: Sean Malikides
Technical Artis: Adam Heslop
VFX Artist:: Erik Ferguson
Designer: Adi Wiedersheim Sendagorta
Studio Manager: Alexa Romanoff
Production & Operations: Leisure, Inc.

Interactive Production Company: Active Theory: 
Creative Director: Andy Thelander
Interactive Director: Michael Anthony
Technical Director: Mike Chang
Managing Director: Nick Mountford
Head of Production: Annie Chen
Producer: Izabela Heck
Strategist: Edmund Benson
Back End Developer: Hayden Betts
Back End Developer: Giuseppe Juarez
Interactive Developer: Patrick Heng
Interactive Developer: Michael Sungaila
Interactive Designer: Thiébault Delaporte 
UX / UI Designer: Hanee Pyon

Production Company: Second Child 
Managing Director: Scott Chinn
Photographer: Paul McGeiver
Line Producer: Kimmy d’Ancona
Design Director: Pravin Chottera
Motion Effects Designer: Zach Horn
Post Producer: Sara Mills

Music + Audio Design: Plan8
Music and Sound Design: Magnus Wallin + Marcus Lindberg
Creative Director: Oscar Tillman
Audio development: Andreas Jeppsson
Executive Producer: Calle Stenqvist
Technical Director: Tor Castensson

Sound: Second Child
Mixer: Jesse Peterson