Boban Marjanovic Lends a (Large) Hand to Pepperidge Farm Goldfish

Dallas Mavericks center Boban Marjanovic stands 7-foot-4. He’s a handful, and not just for rival defenders.

Marjanovic can hold more than 300 Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers in each of his mighty mitts, a skill—and we use the term loosely—that’s on amusing display in ads co-starring his pal and former teammate Tobias Harris of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Dudes have just too much Goldfish-fueled fun in that campaign from Saatchi & Saatchi New York, right? Biscuit Filmworks director Aaron Stoller, of Liberty Mutual and Nissan Heisman House fame, creates the perfect atmosphere: goofy, but not distractingly so. We’d hang with those guys. And they supply the snacks!

Folks can join a #GoForTheHandful video challenge on TikTok for a chance to win autographed special edition “Boban Size” bags of Goldfish. You could even earn “Spokeshand” status, scoring free salty-cheesy ‘fish for a year and social media appearances on behalf of the brand.

“We often hear that people go for the handful when eating Goldfish crackers, so we wanted to find a way to play along,” Janda Lukin, chief marketer at Pepperidge Farm unit Campbell Snacks, tells Muse. “You may have seen it but there’s an entire Reddit thread dedicated to Boban holding things. So Boban made a lot of sense, and his friendship with Tobias was just what we wanted to represent the fun and friendliness of Goldfish. Their friendship is so genuine and entertaining.”

While Goldfish are usually considered a kids’ snack, “the whole family loves them too,” Lukin says, so the work strives to broaden their appeal. “Nearly half of all the Goldfish crackers eaten, are eaten by adults. So, we knew there was a big untapped audience for a campaign like this.”

Tapping TikTok’s “Duet” feature for the challenge makes sense owing to the platform’s popularity among users of all ages, she says.

The team filmed the ads in a single day, and the shoot was hands-down the most fun they’d had in ages. “We had to do that shot where Boban breaks through the bag over and over, because Boban and Tobias would crack up laughing every time he did it,” Lukin recalls.

CREDITS

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi New York
Chief Executive Officer – Andrea Diquez
Chief Creative Officer – Daniel Lobatón
Executive Creative Director – Bob Winter
Creative Director – Lucas Panizza
Associate Creative Director, Writer – Danny Price
Senior Art Director – Jacopo Biorcio
VP, Associate Director of Production – Tim LeGallo
SVP, Group Account Director – Caitlin Reynolds
VP, Account Director – Michelle Scallate
Account Executive – Perri Rubenstein
Planning Director – Nayantara Mukherji
Director Digital Experience – Melissa Hochman
Senior Business Affairs Manager – Beth Helminiak

PR: MSL

MEDIA: SPARK FOUNDRY

Production: Biscuit Filmworks
Director – Aaron Stoller
Partner / Managing Director – Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer – Holly Vega
Producer – Mala Vasan
Head of Production – Sean Moody
Director of Photography – Corey Walter
Production Designer – Alexis Ross

Editorial Company: Arcade Edit
Editor – Paul Martinez
Assistant Editor – Drew Neuhart
Executive Producer – Sila Soyer
Sr Post Producer – Andrew Cravotta

Color: Harbor Film Company
Colorist – Adrian Seery
Sr Producer, Color – Jody Peters

Music: Pickle Music Studios
Founder/CCO – Alexis Estiz
Producer – Lupita Alvarez 

Mix: Harbor Picture Company
Creative Director, Sound  – Steve Perski
Sr Producer, Sound – Lauren Boyle

Liz Taylor, CCO, Publicis Communications North America