The ad follows a Thatchers representative as he travels through a classic Somerset town, where the love and art of cider was born, but by a hot-air balloon.
 
The oddity of the scene is that the balloon is floating at ground level, ultimately visualising the narrative of this clever ad; ‘If you wouldn’t use a hot air balloon to travel like you could in a car, why would you drink cider that almost tastes like cider?’
 
2D Lead Artist Ivor Griffin comments; ‘There was a lot of amazing talent working across this project, and the whole team worked meticulously to create this summer-time ad for Thatchers.
 
The tight deadline proved an initial challenge but we managed to turn it around and garner something that was super well-crafted. We even received some wonderful feedback after everything was approved.’
 
Mill Head of Colour Seamus O’Kane explains; ‘We wanted to create the whimsical sense of tranquility of an English summer day, suddenly being shattered by the "imperfect” Balloon.
 
We lifted the visual with warm, soft and gentle tones, coaxed them into an almost dream-like summer-time feel.
 
The comic delivery and timing is where you focus on the narrative of this ad, and so in these moments we drew out the richness of the countryside, which sat really well within this palette.
 
The final product hugely benefitted from our pipeline approach to CG integration, with the seamlessness of the final spot being a result of the VFX based post.
 
The colour design developed while the VFX progressed and the final look is this beautifully illustrative story of Thatchers Gold Cider.’