When your campaign ideas include the village of Shitterton and an island called Lootopia, expectations are already... unorthodox. So, for their third act with gut health brand Symprove, Lucky Generals didn’t dial it down — they doubled down. 

Led by Paul Mallon, Head of Special Ops, the agency teamed up with Lisa Snowdon to launch Gut Couture, a high-fashion spoof complete with a “Flatulence Frock” and “Loo Roll Look.” The goal? To connect with IBS sufferers in a way that’s bold, beautifully absurd, and just the right amount of ridiculous.

What was the brief?

Drive awareness of the brand through ideas that show Symprove’s target audience, solution-seeking IBS sufferers, that we understand them. 

How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?

It's always huge fun for Symprove. The approach for the teams was to stay tight on the tone. The aim is to mix frankness with a premium approach, and borrow the style and tropes of passion points like luxury travel, high fashion, and amazing food.

The same goes for language — linguistic plays on loos and bowel movements need to be sharp-witted and subtle, not just poo gags or crude euphemisms. The Symprove clients are socially-savvy and great to work with, they are really involved throughout the process, so movements tend to be pretty quick once we’ve shown the first round of ideas.

What was the process behind ideating the concept?

The creatives work into the Special Ops creative director on it, and alongside our brilliant producers led by Charlie Dodd, who refine the idea and determine the best way to bring it to life.

As part of the original hook, we had the incoming London Fashion Week. And with the brilliant Lisa Snowdon as brand ambassador, it was too good an opportunity to pass, and bang-on brief. We could be frank and honest, but also keep it premium with some humour in there. 

And so our idea (the third in an ongoing series for Symprove - the first two being inviting the people of Shitterton to talk about shit and the second to entice holiday goers with irritable bowels to visit the uber-exclusive island of Lootopia) was to create a high fashion line of outlandish clothes, the Gut Couture Collection, to highlight the symptoms of IBS and how it affects women’s day-to-day lives.

Our creatives dreamed up a ‘No-bloat ballgown’, ‘Loo roll look’ and ‘Flatulence Frock’ from several ideas for dresses to showcase in an online film. The tricky thing of course was then to get them made – without Balenciaga budgets. 

What was the production process like?

We have a finely-tuned unit on Special Ops at Lucky Generals which is lean, senior and speedy. But we paused the roll-out due to the Queen’s passing and so London Fashion Week went ahead without us. While we missed that hook we were confident the concept still held and with a flurry of incoming fashion weeks it wasn’t such a huge issue.

We were confident we could release a pretentious fashion-house-style video and the audience would still ‘get it’. Our production team worked with a brilliant London designer Polly Mann to create the dresses for Lisa from scratch, and then we all high-tailed it to a studio in Camden for a one-day shoot.

What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?

When it came to ‘the Flatulence Frock’ the original idea was for Lisa to climb into some sort of large human balloon but after testing, we realised this was going to be a little tricky (the balloon exploded). So that’s a risk with talent that we didn’t need.

So Polly’s alternative approach was for a huge oversized bubble with some OTT ruffle trousers and Lisa pulled them off just perfectly.

What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?

Having Lisa Snowdon parading around wearing the three dresses was pretty surreal. You’d be thinking ‘God, she looks amazing’. Yet she’s wearing loo rolls and a dress made from 30 meters of tulle with this fluffy silhouette. There was lots of comedy involved, and it was all a bit surreal, which I’d imagine the world of fashion is full of.

What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?

People with gut issues shouldn’t have to go this far. Visit Symprove.com for more practical advice. 

How long did it take from inception to delivery?

About eight weeks — from the presentation of ideas to delivery of the Gut Couture Collection.

What do you hope it achieves for the brand?

Awareness, consideration, sales.

Credit list for the work?

Creative Agency: Lucky Generals

Brand: Symprove

Production Company: Lucky Productions

Costume design: Polly Mann