An international advertising publication has selected an ad campaign created by Johnson City’s Creative Energy to be featured in its December issue. Vienna, Austria’s Luerzer’s Archive magazine features print and television campaigns of excellence from around the globe. The campaign was created for Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Garner Foods’ Texas Pete® hot sauces.

The campaign turns the mouth into a stage with engaging and humorous 15-second spots in the agency’s first retail campaign for the brand, called “Drama for Your Mouth.”

Texas Pete® Account Executive Trinity Lancaster explains that the brand needed to reposition itself in a category where the message seems to focus solely on how spicy or hot a sauce is. “Texas Pete® is more than hot,” he says. “It’s an experience with a multitude of bold flavors. These spots capture that, and bring it to life.”

In the spots, the mouth becomes the stage of an old candlelight theater and hosts anthropomorphized chilies, garlic cloves, a stick of butter and more. Each character personifies the flavors of different Texas Pete® sauces, giving viewers a figurative glimpse into the ways Texas Pete® tantalizes the tastebuds, from the triumphant flavor of sautéed garlic to the sultry, buttery taste of wing sauce.

“The idea came from thinking about what happens when you use Texas Pete®, how do your tastesbuds react, how does your mouth react?” Creative Director Greg Nobles explains. “Tasting Texas Pete® is dramatic—and that led into the thinking that your mouth is the stage for all these flavors that come to life when you use Texas Pete®.”

The national digital campaign led to the highest online engagement in the history of Texas Pete®, with more than 18 million impressions over a three-month period.

Creative development was crafted at Creative Energy’s Johnson City, Tenn., office, and the videos were filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Fueld Films.

The team included:

• Executive Creative Director: Will Griffith, Creative Energy
• Creative Director: Greg Nobles, Creative Energy
• Art Director: Hannah Howard, Creative Energy
• Account Executive: Trinity Lancaster, Creative Energy
• Copywriter: Ryan Lee
• Agency Producer: April Dace
• Director: David Quinn
• Production Company: Fueld Films
• Director of Photography: Munn Powell
• Executive Producer: Brady Anderton
• Executive Producer: John Murphy
• Illustrator: Pavel Ioudine
• Editor: Robin Haman
• Post Production: Saints Editorial
• Colorist: Cem Ozkilicci
• Grading/Online: Alter Ego
• Audio Post Production: Coupe Studios

The Drama for Your Mouth spots can be viewed at TexasPete.com/drama or on YouTube.