The Atlanta Community Food Bank is unleashing a monster that’s infiltrating billboards, TVs and radios. The shape-shifting monster can’t be seen, but is “quiet and sneaky and ugly and mean.” Its first name is Hun, its last name is Grr.
Yes, the Hunger Monster is invading Atlanta, via a multi-media marketing campaign that started at the beginning of June and will run through the first week of September. In a two-minute short on YouTube and in 30-second spots on local television, the Hunger Monster taunts old and young alike, bouncing along to a Dr. Suessian rhyme until he encounters just the thing to “spoil his mood: a satisfied belly full of good healthy food.”
The brainchild of two Atlanta-based creative agencies and the food bank’s marketing department, the Hunger Monster aims to bring attention to hunger among school-aged kids during the summer months, as well as increase general awareness of food insecurity throughout metro Atlanta and North Georgia. Awesome Inc., a certified women-owned business that produces content for Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and other big brands, contributed the animation, while 22squared, a top independent advertising agency, wrote the script.
The final product took shape over about a year and a half, with the creative teams considering everything from aliens to teddy bears as they brainstormed a physical representation of hunger. The Hunger Monster — not too scary and not too cute, but insidiously present among people of all types and ages — was the result, following numerous consultations and vision boards. The grayish-bluish monster sports an ever-present, self-satisfied half-grin as he glides and weaves his way from belly to belly throughout the community.
As an animated creature, the Hunger Monster is a departure from the more typical path of describing hunger through the stories of real people who have lived it. “We wanted to deliver the story of hunger in a different way that really resonates,” said Heather Schlesinger, Chief Marketing Officer at Atlanta Community Food Bank.
The Hunger Monster represents the food bank’s second animated campaign. The first, called Pass the Peaches, helped Schlesinger win the American Marketing Association’s 2019 “Marketer for Good” award earlier this year. Released for the 2018 holiday season, Pass the Peaches was the first campaign in the food bank’s history to run across platforms ranging from social media, to billboards to TV and radio.
The fact that both campaigns feature animation along with rhyming cadences is pure coincidence, Schlesinger said. “It was just two different agencies that felt it was a really good creative place for the food bank to be,” she said. Pass the Peaches, designed with Atlanta-based ASO Advertising, “did extraordinarily well for us” in terms of engagement and fundraising, she added. A third campaign, due for release in September, features live-action stories with no animation or rhyming, Schlesinger noted.
The food bank is hoping that Hunger Monster will catch on as a multi-platform mascot, living on the website, YouTube and social media, as well as in training sessions, youth summits, and on t-shirts. Picking up on a portion of the short in which the monster morphs into stop sign, there will be a stop sign featuring the monster at the food bank’s new campus, opening in 2020. Already, the staff has taken to the monster, with one team carving him into a pumpkin at Halloween, Schlesinger said.
Every aspect of the Hunger Monster project was donated, from the sound mixing, to the voice-overs, to the orchestra that provided the music. In addition, the food bank is benefitting from free or discounted advertising space. Schlesinger’s only request was that the final product appeal to people of all ages. “We wanted it to resonate with all those audiences,” she said.
