It all started with these 45 seconds / LEGO "KIPPER"

The problem

Back then, LEGO ads just showed you what you could build. TBWA London brought in stop-motion animation and narration in the style of comedian Tommy Cooper.

The insight

When kids play with LEGO, there's always a story happening. A chase between a mouse and a cat, an imaginary battle over who's stronger. Creative directors Mike Cozens and Graham Watson saw straight to the heart of that kind of play: the constant transforming. It's not about the finished model, it's about the possibility that it could become something totally different the next moment. That's all packed into the line "It's a new toy every day."

The idea

A mouse is about to be caught by a cat, so it turns into a dog. The cat becomes a dragon, the dog becomes a fire engine, the dragon becomes a submarine. A fish called Kipper swallows the submarine, and in the end the mouse turns back into itself to surprise its rival, who's now disguised as an elephant, and wins. The director was Ken Turner, known for Thunderbirds. The narration was Roger Kitter doing an impression of Tommy Cooper, and plenty of people thought it really was Cooper himself.

What happened

The ad won two Black Pencils at D&AD in 1981. In 2000 it was voted one of the "100 Greatest Adverts" by Channel 4 viewers, and in 2008, for LEGO's 50th anniversary, it returned to British cinemas. The dragon even gets a nod in BETC's 2019 campaign "Rebuild the World."

Afterthought

What's impressive is that even though this is really just a product demo, it still comes together as a proper story. It feels like someone took exactly what's going on inside a kid's head while playing alone in their room and poured it into 45 seconds. It's not saying "look what this can become" — it's saying "your imagination can take shape."

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 1981

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