Rustlers Tastes Like Ballroom Dancing

Which means it's really tasty, apparently

And our prize for the week’s best advert taking place inside a human mouth goes to … burger brand Rustlers, for its ballroom-dancing extravaganza from Droga5 London.

Coffee Mate’s energetic tongue from the Super Bowl doubtlessly approves.

That one was weird for weird’s sake. Rustlers’ humor proves less gross, but still awfully silly and self-aware. After some fancy footwork, we ultimately learn that the characters are trapped forever in a pun-filled commercial universe.

Good for Droga, spreading the Lynchian “Red Room” absurdity like thick, tangy ketchup to make the spot stand out.

“Ultimately, you’re always looking for ways to keep things fresh and surprising,” agency creative director Ed Redgrave tells Muse. “Dancing as a taste metaphor has been done a lot. So, we needed an interesting point of difference. We had this thought of using your mouth as a stage. And contrasting this fancy ballroom style with a more modern, beefy track. Indulgence meets dirty.”

As for the oddball music selection, ‘Beef’ is simply a funny word. So repeating that over and over on a catchy track always felt like a winner,” he says.

The final twist represents a way to refresh the “eat product, enter a fantasy metaphor dream world” trope, Redgrave says.

“What if they don’t ever leave the metaphor—and instead remain trapped? That’s fun. Then how do we tell that? I’d not seen epilogues used in a commercial before. But we’re all familiar with them at the end of movies. Explaining what happened to characters post film. So that felt fresh. And unexpected. And, most importantly, funny.”

Alex Southam directed through Rascal Studio.

The :60 breaks this week, supported by OOH, digital and radio.