A new campaign for Laughing Cow builds on the brand’s emerging sense of humour with a series of stop-motion-style videos in which anthropomorphic snack items vie for the affections of a would-be cheese-wedge companion.

The “Dramatically Creamy” campaign, created in partnership with Havas Creative Canada (HCC), places crackers, celery and cucumbers in scenarios straight out of daytime TV, complete with missed romantic connections and last-minute wedding interventions.

HCC VP of strategy John Pankert tells strategy that the new work builds on May’s “OG Emoji” campaign – which petitioned to have the Laughing Cow logo added to emoji libraries – as part of the brand’s aim to “stay interesting and stay relevant” while increasing the entertainment factor.

“Instead of telling people that it’s better to laugh, we’re trying to entertain them in a more relevant way,” Pankert says. “Honestly, cheese is not something that is naturally really entertaining. But we’re trying to bring some entertainment value and some fun in a subject that oftentimes is not super, super rich.”

Pankert says the “Dramatically Creamy” campaign is part of a broader, long-term effort to re-energize the Bel Group brand.

The handcrafted, stop-motion approach started as a practical constraint: “It was really something that was supposed to be social and small, short videos,” he says. “But those limitations actually helped us find something more relevant and human. It made the work stand out and feel in tune with that DIY, creator-driven social landscape we see today.”

Pankert says new scenarios are already in development as the brand continues to evolve its “Dramatically Creamy” world while tracking campaign sentiment and long-term brand health metrics to measure impact.

“It’s work that will take more than a campaign to do,” he says. “From a brand standpoint, I think it’s changing the direction and then being steadfast on holding that line for it to really work. So it’s going to be a multiple campaign, multiple year effort.”

The campaign will run nationally across TV, online video, social, out-of-home and in-store channels, with media handled by Spark Foundry and in-store executions by Cri Agence.