Food Goes Good Instead of Bad in Johannes Leonardo's Apeel Ads

Have you ever rooted around in the crisper, finding naught but wilted lettuce and moldy avocados? It’s enough to make a peckish soul bellow in anguish: “Stay fresh longer, damn you!”

Apeel wants to change all that. The California startup makes an edible, plant-based coating designed to keep fruits and vegetables fresh twice as long.

In the brand’s first-ever ad campaign, developed by Johannes Leonardo, an energetic lime seems downright sweet on Apeel:

A tad rambunctious, especially for food. Still, it beats finding a monster in your kitchen at 1 a.m.! In the :15s below, we meet the lime’s juicy friends. Far be it from us to include any … spoilers:

The campaign also features digital banners and out-of-home elements:

Now that’s snackable content! Hiyo!

“We looked at the sustainable catrgory as it stands. What we found was that so much of the work that exists seems to guilt you into action, or ask you to change a behavior,” Johannes Leonardo creative director Jeph Burton tells Muse. “Apeel simply asks that when you’re shopping for produce, just pick the one that lasts longer, because it’s good for you, and good for all of us. ‘Food Gone Good’ is about how nature can work effortlessly with human nature, and not against it.”

Working with Yonder director Adam Patch, the team strove to “show food in the simplest and most disarming way possible, Burton says. “So, we avoided animation. This produce could be sitting in your kitchen right now—but it could make all the difference. Everything had to be done for real. The more approachable it felt, the better.”

For example, in the “Spin” spot, the team skipped fancy CG and simply drilled a hole through the table. So, “the avocado is spinning on a drill it’s impaled on,” Burton says. “Very grim to say that, but it’s Halloween.”

And in the :30 hero commercial, serendipity played a tasty role.

“The final shot of ‘Journey,’ where the lime rolls along the counter and perfectly nestles into a bunch of produce at the end, happened completely by accident,” says Hunter Hampton, also an agency CD. “It was supposed to continue rolling on by, but apparently had something else in mind, which turned out great. I don’t know if you know what it’s like to hear a dozen crew members scream through your computer speakers, but it’s amazing.”