Client work
Fruco · 2019
Uncontainable flavour. Weaponizing the onion.
Client work
Fruco briefed a campaign for Mayonesa Fruco Onion built on a single creative challenge: the very thing that signals the product's intensity, the onion, makes people cry. The campaign reframes those tears as tears of happiness: flavour so intense, so alive, that your eyes have no choice but to join the celebration.
Art direction, production, post-production.
The brief, decoded
The client brief: launch Mayonesa Fruco Onion with a campaign that transforms the product's defining attribute, onion intensity, from a perceived negative into an appetite signal. The campaign line 'Sabor Incontenible. Lágrimas de Felicidad' (Uncontainable Flavour. Tears of Happiness) was the creative answer.
The production challenge was casting and directing subjects whose on-camera reaction would sell the emotional logic: these are not tears of discomfort, they are tears of joy at the intensity of the flavour. Studio location, real subjects, a full crew.
The idea and the obstacle
The creative solution reframes a biological reflex into a brand signal. Onion-induced tears become a mark of flavour quality: the product is so intensely real, so uncontainably good, that the body's only response is overwhelmed happiness. Tears of happiness.
The visual language anchors the concept in appetite: saturated product colour, expressive subjects, and a clean hero composition that reads as joy and craving. The onion is not the problem; it is the proof.
From set to final grade
Production was a studio shoot with real subjects. Casting focused on finding faces that could sell delight and overwhelmed happiness simultaneously, not theatrical exaggeration. Glycerin-assisted tears were used for a consistent, credible look across takes. Lighting was designed to read warm and appetising, keeping subjects and product colour front and centre.
Post-production built the final KV in layers: subject pass, product pass, colour grade, and appetite-cue passes to amplify freshness and saturation on the mayonnaise without tipping into artificial. The discipline of decomposing a frame into independently controlled passes is the same foundation I bring to generative compositing today.
Shoot & post workflow
- Casting
- Cast for expressiveness: joy and overwhelmed delight, not theatrical pain.
- Set & lighting
- Studio shoot, warm key matched to the appetising product palette.
- Shoot
- Real subjects, glycerin-assisted tears, multiple takes for consistency.
- Product pass
- Mayonnaise hero isolated and retouched: freshness and appetite cues.
- Composite & grade
- Subject and product passes combined, warm appetising grade.
- Final KV
- Mayonesa Fruco Onion. Sabor Incontenible. Lágrimas de Felicidad.
Direction notes
Tears are joy, not discomfort. Casting, direction, and grade must read delight, not pain.
Product colour drives the grade: the mayonnaise sets the warmth target for the entire frame.
Appetite-cue passes tuned independently so the product stays honest, no artificial sheen.
Layer decomposition
- Subject plate
- Real subjects on set, directed expression, glycerin tears.
- Product hero
- Mayonesa Fruco Onion: isolated, retouched, appetite-cue enhanced.
- Freshness pass
- Specular and moisture cues: product reads as vivid and alive.
- Saturation pass
- Targeted vibrance on flavour-signal colours.
- Colour grade
- Warm appetising finish: tears read as happiness, not pain.
Final Output
- Campaign line
- Sabor Incontenible. Lágrimas de Felicidad. (Uncontainable Flavour. Tears of Happiness.)
- Production
- Studio shoot with real subjects, full crew, glycerin-assisted tears for consistency across takes.
- Post approach
- Layered build: subject, product, freshness, saturation, and grade passes tuned independently for appetite appeal without artificial sheen.