This :60, titled “Sugar Buildings,” shows us the cumulative effect of soft drinks, literally and mathematically. The latter stems from the fact that one regular can of soda contains the equivalent of nine sugar cubes, which translates into the consumption of 3,285 sugar cubes a year for someone who drinks a can a day. Over the average life span of an adult, that’s a whopping 221,314 sugar cubes consumed by one person.
DDB California tasked director Matthias Zentner of harvest with figuring out how to build a city out of 221,314 sugar cubes. He was drawn to the project and the challenge as he found this concept for Brita to be “morally correct advertising which has something to say.”
The spot shows the city growing by leaps and bounds, raising awareness of how much sugar is ingested by soda drinkers. The camera reveals that this city of cubes is within the outline of a human body, after which we’re advised to “drink more water” filtered by Brita.
Sugar sculpture artists Brendan Jamison and Mark Revels were commissioned to build the city of cubes, working closely with Zentner on the dimensions and physical structure of the sugar metropolis.
DDB California creative director Jim Bosiljevac noted, “We wanted to convey that this wasn’t just a personal decision; it was larger than that. It’s not only about your personal choices but the choices of the entire world; it becomes a health epidemic.”
