We helped Sainsbury’s make an epic zoetrope cake to celebrate its 150th anniversary as part of the recently launched ‘Proudly Doing Our Bit’ campaign.

A 60″ TVC leads the campaign and follows the creation of a cake that embodies the supermarket’s values and heritage over the last 150 years. Each tier represents contributions from Sainsbury’s colleagues, from the opening of the very first store on Drury Lane to more recent initiatives like the retailer’s 20-year partnership with Comic Relief, which has raised over £130 million.

A combination of model making, 3D printing and traditional sugar craft artistry were combined to create the cake, which uses a zoetrope technique to give the illusion of an animated moving image. The zoetrope technique was one of the earliest forms of animation, invented in the early 1800s and still popular at the time of Sainsbury’s founding in 1869. The top tier of the cake was created by Californian pastry chef, Claire Ptak, who baked the wedding cake for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018.

The film was directed by Noah Harris via Agile Films.

Dan Norris and Ray Shaughnessy, Creative Directors at W+K London, said: “Making Sainsbury’s history come to life via the medium of a zoetrope cake was quite the challenge (massive understatement), but it truly is fitting of such a big birthday. Lucky we had Noah on board; the team couldn’t be prouder of the work.”