CorpComms Magazine

For those kitchen disasters who find it almost impossible to get their Victoria sponges to rise, pity the four home economists and three bakers who had to create the new Skoda Fabia totally out of cake. Somehow, eight people working over 10 days at Shepper ton Studios managed to build a life-size (if not working) replica of the latest Fabia model, with a chassis made of sponge cake, Glacier Mint headlights and strawberry jelly rear lights.

For John Allison and Chris Bovill, creative directors at Soho-based agency Fallon, cheating was not an option. Every single part of the two-ton car was made out of cake ingredients. And, for those wanting to try it at home, the recipe includes 180 fresh eggs, 10 kg of white chocolate chunks, 100 kg of wheat flour, 12.5 kg of raspberry jam and 42 kg of chocolate fudge.

Mark Graeme, account manager at Fallon, explains that, while it would obviously have been easier to produce a cake on a cardboard cut-out of a car, it is 'all about integrity. People love the fact that we have built a car and paid such attention to all the details.'

The fan belts, windscreen wipers and aerial, for example, are all made of liquorice, while Golden Syrup stands in for the lubricant and meringue replaces the fog lights. 'It would have somehow cheated the viewer if we had not made the entire car from cake,' explains Graeme. 'As an agency, we were determined not to do that.'

Home economist Sarah Tildesley was given the job of problem solving and sourcing the ideal ingredients to produce every component of the car. After much discussion and testing, the bodywork panels were made from Rice Krispies because 'it was the best edible material that will set to the exact shape', Tildesley explains.

 Graeme says the inspiration for the advertisement came from the idea that the new Skoda Fabia was 'filled with lots of goodies, and was designed with the driver in mind. Every little nugget within the car was pragmatic and useful. The feeling was that the car was wonderful and really quite more-ish, which is what we wanted to convey in the advertisement.'

The advert starts with a view of the first egg being cracked, then shows a cake mixture being produced in a huge bowl before showing views of bakers making an assortment of different shaped cakes. Unbeknown to the viewer, the two bakers are producing 448 Madeira 'brick cakes' to form the foundation of the car's chassis.

The baking takes place against a soundtrack of Dame Julie Andrews singing her 1959 classic song My favourite things, which she first sang to calm seven children frightened by a thunderstorm in the film The sound of music. It is believed to be the first time the track has been used in an advertisement - and Dame Julie gave her personal permission.

'We tried some other music tracks, it is all about being happy.' Instead of using overtly 'happy things', the advertisement is meant to make the viewer feel happy and, as a result, want to drive the car.

It eventually becomes clear the bakers are assembling an orange car, courtesy of fondant icing coloured with 180 kg of orange sugar paste, but it is only when the Skoda marque is finally fixed with icing sugar on the front bonnet that the brand is revealed.

At an estimated £500,000 for the advertisement, the Skoda cake costs more than 60 times the price of an actual car. 'You need to have a spectacle,' explains Graeme, who will not be drawn on the costings. 'Every time you watch this advertisement, you see different things.'

A real achievement

Chris Palmer, who directed the advert, adds that the filming was done in real time. It took one week to mould the cake, then three days to 'manufacture' it. 'Thank God we did it for real, even though doing it for real in real time was the worst possible way,' he says. 'We didn't have a practice run: it was all theory until we had done it. But I'm so glad we did, and that the people in the advert were the actual people who did it - the model makers were building it for real. That's why it was so interesting.'

Skoda initially intended to cut up the cake and distribute it to local charities, schools and hospitals. But that idea had to be abandoned after it was realised that, having been left under studio lights for so many days, the car posed a health and safety risk. It was sent to the East London Community Recycling Project in Clapton to compost and make into natural fertiliser, although the marzipan wing mirrors, chocolate speedometer and wafer engine fan have been preserved and vacuum-packed as mementos of the production.

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