ABOUT

The exploding potatoes had stunt doubles.

For real.

We really did throw thousands of potatoes that day. And we were given boxes of rehearsal potatoes to use as
‘body doubles’ while hundreds of hero potatoes were hand-selected by Albert Bartlett quality controllers whose families have been obsessed with potato quality for generations.

Making thousands of potatoes explode sounds simple.

Until you discover the location means flying to one of Jersey’s famous côtils – potato fields that can reach gradients of 45°, where even the farmers use mechanical winches to work the land.

Add a 21-day lead time and a no-explosives brief and suddenly things get interesting.

After a lot of experimentation, we ended up burying hundreds of mousetrap-powered rigs beneath the soil and triggering them remotely to launch potatoes into the air.

And that wasn’t the only challenge.

We had just two hours to transform a working antique shop into a deli, carefully removing and storing thousands of antiques before returning every item exactly where we found it.

But honestly, the biggest challenge wasn’t making the potatoes fly.

It was resetting those rigs for days on a 45° hillside.

The potatoes flew.

We climbed.

My legs still haven’t forgiven me. But I’ll never forget the taste of new potatoes pulled from the ground 20 minutes earlier and cooked for the correct amount of time - which I never knew is actually up to 20 minutes. That how the CEO cooks them.

Huge thanks to the brilliant crew who helped bring this gloriously bonkers Albert Bartlett commercial to life.

Production Design: Elizabeth Melinek
Production: THE GATE FILMS LIMITED
Director: martin aamund
DOP: Julian Hohndorf
1st AD: @Stevie fylan
Art department assistant / buyer: Anna Boase
SFX partner: Machine Shop
VFX (because honestly - not all the potatoes you see are real): Benjamin Cruickshank