Dolmio cuts the strings of its puppet mascots for a more grounded marketing strategy

Mars-owned Italian sauce brand Dolmio is moving away from its long-standing puppet mascots to embrace a more realistic approach starring actor Dominic West.

After 15 years of faithful service, the family of bug-eyed, bushy-browed Italian lovers is being put out to pasture for a realistic Dominic West narrated slot called ‘No Drama’ that ironically features a lot of drama. Starring as the Dad, replacing ‘Papa’, West narrates his son’s passion for video games in grandiose fashion before the family is loosed upon plates of bolognese.

Clarence Mak, global chief marketing and customer officer of Mars Food, said: “This campaign stems from what we know about families – sometimes dinnertime can be the most stressful part of the day. We wanted to show the power of our brand - a delicious, tempting meal can bring every family together.”  

James Drummond, board account director at AMV BBDO, added: “To celebrate drama-free mealtimes we were excited to call on one of the best known dramatic actors out there to help launch our new campaign. 

“We appreciate how stressful and drama filled preparing and cooking a nutritionally balanced meal can be so showing the meal maker that we understand their predicament and can help them on this journey was an obvious step for the number one Italian cooking sauce brand.”

The new ad launched 18 August and ran on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. The work from AMV BBDO will also run online.