Dr. Oetker is best known for frozen pizza, but it is hoping to elbow its way into the dessert space with a new line of fresh frozen cakes and a campaign inspired by French fashion.

The spot is a colourful mix of stop motion and live action with 60’s Vogue editorial-style faces superimposed on spinning plates, all rotating around a cheesecake centrepiece and ending with the tagline, “Oui, Pâtisserie.”

“In Canada, we’re perceived as a pizza company that does dessert,” says Peter Macdonald, executive head of marketing at Dr. Oetker Canada. “In Europe, it’s the other way around.” He says the goal as a brand is to become synonymous with both pizza and desserts, but concedes it has a ways to go with the latter.

With the launch of the “Pâtisserie” dessert brand, Dr. Oetker’s first foray into frozen baked desserts in Canada, Macdonald says it really wanted to stand out visually as being different. The ad’s styles reflect a number of periods from French fashion, which Macdonald says was done to reflect the public perception that when it comes to desserts, the French know best.

While the visual look is different compared to previous Dr. Oetker campaigns, some of the messaging still emphasizes traits the brand has focused on in the past, such as the fact that the products have no preservatives or artificial colours and flavours.

The TV spot will be airing on Corus women’s specialty networks during April and May, to reach the brand’s primary target of women 25 to 49 years old, skewing towards one- and two-person households. It will also run online as pre-roll, as well as with assets on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

The campaign was led by Giants & Gentlemen, which Dr. Oetker selected as its Canadian AOR in June 2018 covering all its pizza and dessert brands.