Cake (advertisement)

Advertising agency Fallon began representing Škoda in 1999, and its first campaign was for the first generation of the Fabia supermini, the successor to the Felicia, in early 2000.[4] While the previous advertising agency, Grey London, had succeeded in improving the company's image, Škoda cars were still the butt of many a joke,[5] and were seen as "naff" by British consumers.[6] Fallon took a lighter, self-denigrating approach - the strapline of the first series of ads (Vandal, Factory Tour) played off the disbelief of the public that a Škoda car could be of high quality, using the strapline "It's a Skoda, honest." The campaign was a tremendous success, dramatically reversing public opinion of the brand.[6][7] Sales of Škoda vehicles increased by record amounts during the period in which the campaign aired.[8]

Upon the launch of the second generation of the Fabia, Fallon chose to shift the focus away from improving the Škoda brand as a whole and towards pushing individual aspects of the cars. The strapline for the Fabia, with its numerous "smaller, helpful features", such as hooks for carrier bags in the boot to keep shopping upright, was to be "full of lovely stuff".[9] The idea for a commercial based around building a car out of cake came from a conversation between creative directors John Allison and Chris Bovill whilst sharing cake on Valentine's Day.[10] Approval was given for a campaign on a cake theme targeting couples aged 35-plus,[9] with a budget estimated at around £500,000.[1]

Once approval was given to the project, director Chris Palmer was brought on board. Palmer's previous work included award-winning spots for Transport for London and the acclaimed Old Lions for Carlsberg in 2006.[11] Palmer's plan was to shoot the production of an actual life-sized Fabia cake with little or no computer-generated imagery.[2] With the air-date for the finished piece set only four weeks from the start of the project, of which Easter celebrations would occupy a large portion, there was no time for any research.[12] All decisions were to be made on the fly, during the production itself.[2][12]

The on-screen crew consisted of six home economists led by Peta O'Brien and Sarah Tildersley, three sugar chefs, a machine operator, two prop experts, and four special effects modelmakers from Pennicott Payne Ltd, with a large production team off-camera.[12] Filming was done in Shepperton Studios over four days,[1] with baking machinery rented from baking equipment company Brook Foods,[12][13] though preliminary work such as casting moulds for the Rice Krispie panels was done a week beforehand.[2] Production finished exactly on time, with the final touch—the Škoda badge—fitted at 2:30am on the last day of the schedule.[12] The crew planned to donate the remains of the cake to local charities and hospitals, but after four days under hot studio lights, it was no longer thought fit for human consumption, and was donated for composting to the East London Community Recycling Project in Clapham.[9] Consequently the project came under criticism for the wastage . However, a few pieces, such as the chocolate speedometer and marzipan wing mirrors were kept for posterity.[1]

Post-production work was performed by Tom Sparks of Alteration Services, with video editing conducted by The Quarry.[14] Ancillary elements of the campaign, such as the online presence and direct marketing, were handled by advertising agency Archibald Ingall Stretton, who had worked with Škoda for eight years prior to Cake.[15] The online elements of the campaign included a dedicated microsite, which was linked to through baking-themed banner ads placed on the sites such as The Times Online, AOL, and Top Gear.[16] For the direct marketing portion of the campaign, Archibald Ingall Stretton sent out car-shaped a double-chocolate, toffee-fudge cream scented air fresheners in the mail to potential and former clients.[17][18]

The sound was recorded at Wave Recording Studios by sound engineer Parv Third.