AUNZ Work of the Week: Restaurant Month and Motion Sickness

To launch Auckland’s August Restaurant Month, Motion Sickness has cooked up a sharp campaign reminding locals that no matter how confident they are in the kitchen, there’s no replicating restaurant-level food at home.

The standout feature is a series of out-of-home billboards that spotlight six signature dishes from top Auckland restaurants. Deceivingly simple, by placing the dishes (or remnants of them) on a white background, you can get a good look at the details that make professionally prepared food so good. Shot by Hugh Davison, each ad captures the ingredients -- and the insane skill level needed -- behind the plates of food. 

“The intention was never to focus on one restaurant or dish, but rather give a sense of the city’s wider restaurant culture,” Motion Sickness copywriter Freddy Riddiford told LBB.

“There’s innovative, beautiful and bizarre things happening in those kitchens.”

As he sharpens his knife somewhat menacingly, the campaign’s hero line, ‘Don’t Try This At Home’, is delivered with just the right amount of edge by chef Mike Shatura in the launch film. For those of us who have left a trail of failed kitchen experiments in their wake, it’s an incredibly compelling argument.