Beyond the Brief: How SICKDOGWOLFMAN turned Maxibon into full-blown cookie chaos

What happens when you turn a person into a cookie and ask them to live a normal life? If you’re Maxibon, you lean all the way in. In this edition of Beyond the Brief, SICKDOGWOLFMAN Senior Copywriter Siobhan Joffe and Art Director Leonie Duff unpack how the idea for Maxibon’s Choc Chip Cookie Bon was born – complete with panic, crumbs, milk-dunking dilemmas and a prosthetic suit built for TikTok dancing.

Starting at the beginning, what was the brief from Maxibon? How much freedom did you have to go as weird and wonderful as this?

Siobhan Joffe: Maxibon came to us with a new product: Maxibon Choc Chip Cookie. Their brief was simple: Create a campaign that celebrates the new cookie flavour. That’s it. No double-pronged SMPs. Across a hero TVC, OOH and fit-for-platform social executions. The Maxibon tone of voice is inherently playful and lo-fi, which allowed us to put our weird and wonderful caps on.

‘What happens if a person turns into a cookie?’ is beautifully absurd. How did you land on that idea, and why did it feel right for Maxibon?

SJ: The cookie chaos all started from the product itself. Cookie on the inside. Cookie on the outside. It’s Full Cookie. We wondered, what would happen if a human went full cookie? Naturally, there’d be panic. Some screaming. Then once reality sets in… acceptance. And complications. Suddenly you want to eat your housemate. There are crumbs everywhere. You’re now afraid of birds.

We had only three prerequisites: Is it fun? Is it cookie? Is it memorable? Absurdity is the entertainment of the internet, and Maxibon were down to embrace the cookie chaos.

There’s a very specific kind of brilliantly bonkers humour here. How do you approach writing something this absurd without it tipping into nonsense?

SJ: There’s a fine line between absurd and nonsense. I’m not sure we didn’t cross it at points. As unhinged as the idea of turning into a cookie is… we wanted it to be relatable. We wanted to capture the passive aggressive tension that exists between real mates living in a sharehouse arguing over whose turn it is to clean. But one of them is now a cookie.

The prosthetic cookie suit sounds like a massive undertaking. What were the biggest challenges in bringing that to life practically?

Leonie Duff: The cookie suit needed to be flexible enough to master a TikTok dance while also looking appetising- a tricky balancing act. The team at SharpFX did a great job achieving both. As part of the process, the suit needed to be baked- just like a real cookie! Unfortunately, in the oven, it cracked- just like a real cookie! Good thing SharpFX are master bakers. We had to trust the process, and it paid off.

Why was it important to do this in-camera rather than leaning more heavily into CGI? What does that add?

LD: We wanted the campaign to resonate with our younger audience whose first language is internet humour. Doing it in-camera made it feel surreal and self-aware in a way that couldn’t be created with CGI. Less Marvel, more Mighty Boosh. It felt more interesting than something shiny or technically perfect, inviting our audience to be in on the joke.

Beyond the hero film, the campaign really leans into social. How did the team land on the different scenarios exploring the day-to-day struggles of a cookie-based existence?

LD: Once you’ve established that a guy is turning into a cookie, there’s a moral responsibility to answer the hard (and philosophical) questions that come next. Is dipping your mate in milk socially acceptable? Who’s responsible for vacuuming up the crumbs? How does a friendship survive such a transformation? Can it survive? We used TikTok and Meta to create mini soap opera scenarios exposing the real consequences of cookie living.

There’s a physical performance element to playing a giant cookie. What direction did you give the actor to sell both the comedy and the panic?

SJ: We have the brilliant Matt Devine at Revolver to thank for that. A true comedy director, Matt nailed casting from the get-go, picking actors that had strong comedy chops. After we got the take on set, he encouraged the actors to ad-lib their hearts out. You’re a cookie. You’re his housemate. Go. Some of our funniest spots came from our actors Jordan Loveday and Con Coutis taking the script and just running with it.

What kind of response have you seen so far, both from audiences and the client?

SJ: Since its launch a couple of weeks ago, we’ve been receiving a lot of love for Trev, our cookie man. Peters head office received a visit from Trev to celebrate the launch. We’ve been named ‘Ad of the Week’ by The Clios and Best Ads. Publications from around the world have been talking about it. We’ve spotted Aussies double-taking our bold cookie man OOH, some even snapping pics. It’s a pretty great feeling.

Client: Maxibon
Head of Marketing: Andrea Hamori
Creative Lead: Damian Kelly
Marketing Manager: Eileen Whitta
Brand Manager, Maxibon: Isabelle Quayle

Agency: SICKDOGWOLFMAN
Creative Director: Jess Wheeler
Creative Director: James Orr
Design Director: Jake Turnbull
Business Director: Jarrick Lay
Senior Copywriter: Siobhan Joffe
Art Director: Leonie Duff
Designer: Dan D’Angelo
Account Director Victoria Concha
Senior Account Manager: Harshini Sivaraj
Senior Account Manager: Hannah Clements
Agency Producer: Nick Livingston

Production Company: Revolver
Director: Matt Devine
Managing Director / Co-Owner: Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer / Partner: Pip Smart
Executive Producer / New Business: Nick Payne
Producer: Max Horn
DOP: Simon J Walsh
Production Designer: Francesca Carey
Food Stylist: Carmel Gohar
Wardrobe: Nell Ferguson
Hair + Make up: Nat Burley
Photographer: Chris Hillary
Retoucher: Gabi Hughes

Prosthetics: Sharp FX

Post-Production: Glue Society Studios
Editor: Luke Crethar
Colourist: Ben Eagleton
Sound: Production Alley
Engineer: Ben Lowe