Creative Corner: McCain's Mr Chippy, Carlsberg's Signs of Unity and Cushelle creates a loo paper magazine

It’s been a week of ‘finally’ moments in the creative world.

Finally, a brand has leaned into the more bizarre but well-established snack habit of the past few decades; finally, a football anthem has been made truly universal; and finally, someone has found a way to make reading on the loo actually engaging without using your phone or reading the back of the shampoo bottle.

Here is the creative work that caught my eye this week.

McCain: A chip off the cold block

It’s not groundbreaking to suggest that the best creative ideas are those that tap into a widely known, but often not explicitly discussed, cultural insight or phenomenon - and here lies one such example, the insight for which I’m sure has been discussed in many a meeting room before.

Enter McCain with its ‘Mr. Chippy’ van, which has been doing the rounds serving hot chips smothered in cold soft-serve ice cream in UK seaside destinations.

The insight here is frozen solid (sorry). Whether it was dipping fries into a milkshake at a 90s Golden Arches birthday party or the salty-sweet appetite of today’s hungry consumer, this is a cultural touchpoint with serious legs. While the supplementary omnibus research provided some decent media hooks, the real hero is the nostalgia. It’s a simple, punchy idea that validates a guilty pleasure on a national scale.

However, looking at it through a purely creative lens, I do think the execution could have pushed that bit further. Aside from it being distinctly out of season for an ice cream campaign, it feels like a slightly missed opportunity for a smart, stylised partnership: a cult ice cream brand or a high-end dairy collaboration to create something more product-led and limited edition. A social-first approach could have turned a quirky PR stunt into a moment that felt as coveted as a fashion collaboration. Still, for the joy and the ‘Mr. Chippy’ pun alone, it’s a winner.

Image: Getty Images for McCain

Carlsberg: hearing the unheard at Liverpool FC

If you’ve ever stood at Anfield, you know that ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ is more than a song; it’s a visceral, vibrating wall of sound. But for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community, that iconic moment of belonging has often felt like a closed door.

Carlsberg, in partnership with the British Deaf Association (BDA) and Liverpool FC, decided to break that silence with ‘Signs of Unity’.

Ahead of its match against West Ham on February 28th and captured as hero content, fans were taught how to perform the anthem in British Sign Language (BSL) by players, legends and Deaf supporters. The resulting film from Fold7 and COPA90 is truly a masterclass in emotive storytelling; seeing a sea of hands rising in unison to speak the language of the Deaf community is a symphony that gives the lyrics entirely new weight. The layer of immersion that allows viewers to experience what it might feel like to a Deaf or hard-of-hearing person is particularly powerful.

And, it is supplemented by decent structural longevity for Deaf fans. Carlsberg is committing to BSL interpreters at every home match and, crucially, working with the BDA to train bar staff in 16 Greene King pubs to ensure the matchday experience doesn't end when the whistle blows. They even utilised a revolutionary Caption With Intention design system to ensure the digital rollout was as accessible as the physical one. It’s a beautiful example of a brand using a longstanding (45 year!) partnership to actually move the needle on inclusivity.

Cushelle reads the room, on the loo

According to toilet paper brand Cushelle, once people feel the softness of its products, they’re sold. But in a hyper-competitive commodity market, is there a way to get people to actually engage with a roll beyond its primary (and very private) function, and in the hands of people to quite literally feel the softness?

You make a magazine out of it.

Created by Publicis London, Porcelain is the world’s first magazine printed entirely on toilet tissue. What I love here is how the campaign breaks the fourth wall of bathroom advertising. Usually, toilet paper ads show puppies or families in clinical white living rooms to avoid the reality of the product's use. Porcelain does the opposite: it sits on the loo with you. So, by turning the product into the medium (literally!), they've created a kind of meta experience where you read about the brand’s softness while physically testing it out; you can read it, tear it out, and flush it.

Cushelle brings us into the NPD approach here, which illustrates a dedication to real innovation and creativity: from the specific binding techniques to ensuring the ink was skin-safe (for obvious reasons), and a host of clever editorial content from parody adverts to crosswords.

By acknowledging the usually unspoken ritual of bathroom me-time (and backed by a little bit of omnibus insight, naturally), they’ve elevated a low-interest category into something innovative, funny, and highly shareable. Huge kudos to the production partners Bladesman and the PR team at Holy Wow! for the heavy lifting. It proves that even the most standard household items have room for a bit of creative disruption.

That's it for this week's Creative Corner!

If you’ve seen something that’s caught your eye, or if you’ve been working on something you’re particularly proud of, please do get in touch via emily.barnes@fanclubpr.com. I’d love to hear about it.