The Hallway and Wholegreen Bakery make gluten-free sceptics eat their words with the launch of the world’s first Cardboard Cake
“Let them eat Cardboard?” In a twist on Marie Antoinette’s famous words, independent advertising agency The Hallway has teamed up with Sydney-based Wholegreen Bakery to create a deliciously edible, Coeliac-Australia-accredited Cardboard Cake that will have gluten-free sceptics eating their words. Literally.
Founded in 2014 by Cherie Lyden after she and her daughter were diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, the acclaimed Wholegreen Bakery is dedicated to crafting exceptional, wholesome gluten free sweet and savoury baked goods. Says Cherie: “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard people say that gluten free food tastes like cardboard, I’d be a rich lady. We’ve been proving the sceptics wrong for years, but with The Cardboard Cake we’re taking it to the next level and tackling the misconceptions head on.”
Cardboard in appearance, but not in flavour, the Cardboard Cake is the result of a rigorous Hallway led design process involving development of a bespoke baking tray that could mimic the shape of cardboard grooves so it could be mass produced at the bakery. Created with a blend of premium ingredients including butterscotch, coffee, cocoa powder, pastry, caramel and brown rice flour, the cake tastes as impressive as it looks. The detailed flavour profiling proves there’s no need to compromise on taste when observing a gluten-free diet
Says Simon Lee, Chief Creative Officer, and Partner at The Hallway: “This is a little cake with a big point to prove: that you can have a gluten-free diet and not deprive yourself of the pleasure of eating delicious baked goods. It’s been an extraordinary collaboration that’s taken our design and production smarts out of the studio and into the kitchen. Bon Appetit!”
The Cardboard Cake will be launched to the media today and will be available for a limited release until March 17th 2024, across all three stores. A short film (above) accompanies the launch.
Website: www.cardboardcake.com.au
Creative & Media: The Hallway
Public Relations Partner: Alt/Shift/
Andie Crawford – Managing Director, Sydney
Nicole Baumli – Senior Account Director
Bronte Mather – Account Manager
Metal Fabrication: Metal-Tech Industries
Packaging: Premier Northpak
Photographer: Andy Lewis
Cinematographer: Milos Mlynarik
Editor: Adrian Barac
Colourist: Fergus Hally
Sound: Rumble
Sound Engineers: Daniel William & Sean Wilkinson
Sound Producer: Michael Gie
Website Developer: Tye Brown
Wholegreen Bakery
Director and Founder: Cherie Lyden
Head Pastry Chef: Karina Sasse
55 Comments
Like Oporto ‘Eat your words’ for their vegan burger.
https://clios.com/awards/winner/public-relations/oporto/eat-your-words-91890
Similar, how?
the oporto thing is kinda the same idea. the execution is different, but the core premise of getting haters to eat their words is definitely the same idea.
Well thats embarrassing lol
Excellent from the Hallway. This is great, well done.
This is great guys, nice to see something different.
Credit where it’s due, this is brilliant
beautiful
The design, photography and edit are stunning. Well jealous.
Gluten -free cakes trying to talk about wealth inequality and elitism? Tread very lightly. Hahaha
Not convinced on the insight. Do people really say that? Seems a bit of a stretch…
Weak insight
Nice one Milos and Hallway.
Thanks T 😉
So completely out of touch, but ooo wavy cardboard lines.
Is through the roof
Really good guys. Ideas and thinking like this should always be congratulated- it’s not easy getting stuff like this made.
S.
People do say that, usually as a joke but it’s still a true insight.
Pretty but pointless
Beautiful Milos! Great work all involved.
Thanks brother
Someone had the thought of making a cake that looks like cardboard and tried to turn it into a full-blown campaign.
Close your coat, your hallway employee lanyard is showing.
The work looks lovely, but I’m unsure of the point. Are they convincing non-coeliacs to eat gluten-free? What does that achieve?
Really fun and creative. Properly played it should earn a solid bit of media, too. Hats off to all and sundry.
Of when an idea punches down.
to a non-existent problem.
What’s not to like about this? I hate negative comments about good work. Well played Hallway.
This is F*****g Brilliant. There’s nothing like this out there. Well done team Hallway.
I really want to like this more than I do. But I struggle with the whole “make up a pretend product to sell an actual product” approach…
Especially here, where the brand/product isn’t very well known, and is just kind of lost in the prominence of the cardboard cake.
I just don’t walk away from this really understanding the point, or remembering who it was for.
Chef’s kiss
Beautiful work, Hallway. I have always thought that GF tastes ‘like cardboard’ and am most intrigued to try the cardboard cake!
Really? There’s definitely a business problem here. A gluten-free bakery looking to overcome perceptions gluten free baking is substandard. And they’ve done it in an attention grabbing way using a true insight about how people refer to gluten-free baking. Not everything needs to be overthought.
Bloody good stuff
Love you back 😉
It’s a bit confused. It just reinforces to me gluten free is cardboard.
Congrats to all involved for thinking outside the box (pun intended)
Who hasn’t heard gluten-free tastes like cardboard?
It’s a gluten-free bakery taking on the problem in the most obvious, but lovely way.
It’s nice. Have fun with your web banners, haters.
I’d try this cardboard, it’ll be a nice break from the other cardboards I’m forced to eat. Nice one, Hallway & friends.
I know right? How bout the solution is…make gluten free not taste like cardboard?? I dunno, call me crazy.
Are you joking? Do you think the point of this is to make something that tastes like cardboard? Think now…
AD and idea remind me of the unforgettable cake campaign from a few months ago
Fun idea crafted well.
Enough said.
This is meant to be for ‘coeliac awareness week’? I presumed it was advertising a bakery.
As someone else succinctly observed, pretty but pointless
I can’t believe how uptight people are in this industry, it’s just a cake. Obviously it is designed to spark conversation and get people to rethink their perceptions of gluten-free food. Judging from the above thread the project is clearly working.
The copy is awful, and does not justice to the thought.
You couldn’t identify this? Oh, and please, the haters gonna hate thing – embarrassing, dumb.
Type pretty hard to read. Sorry to sound like a client.
Fun? FUN idea? Excuse me, coeliac’s disease, also known as rich white person’s disease, is no fun loving matter.
To a casual viewer who doesn’t give a single f*** about your rationale, they’ll see ‘gluten free’ and ‘cardboard cake’. Unless this is an exercise in circle-jerking, you’ve failed a brave client.
Love it. Well done Hallway.
The bakery isn’t the client or who this ad is meant to be promoting. And there in lies the entire problem.
Wait, so who is the client? It’s not Wholegreen Bakery?
(Nice craft!)
Another one from MM.. I can literally taste the craft!
I spotted this thing in the bottom right hand corner called a logo, it says ‘Wholegreen Bakery’. I think we can safely assume they must be the client.
Seems to serve the creatives self indulgence more than benefitting the client….