Creative impulse

After nearly 30 years of sun-kissed beaches and scantily clad pleasure-seekers, Mars has covered up and moved indoors for its new pounds 2m television campaign for Bounty. The new ad, which will run for six weeks, shows a woman in an art gallery viewing a modern painting brought to life through animation. It also modifies the "A taste of paradise" slogan to "A taste of the exotic".

The client: Mars Confectionery

Gordon Storey, external relations manager

We have constantly evolved the Bounty imagery. We started with native islanders, moved on to the "bounty hunters" looking for paradise, and then went through a sporty phase, using catamarans and windsurfers. In the late Eighties, we focused on the relationship between two people in paradise, with the "Try a little tenderness" campaign.

What we kept seeing, though, even as the ads became more active, was the white, sun-kissed beach - the idle idyll - and while at the beginning this image was aspirational, such beaches are now readily accessible. We wanted to keep the brand positioned as exotic but also to get away from the idea of just sitting in the sun. The ad has a noticeably different feel, but builds on what we've done before. We think we've got the best of both worlds.

The agency: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO

Julian Ingram, creative director

We felt that the sun, sea and sand ads had become dreadfully cliched. This kind of imagery is also employed increasingly by drinks companies such as Bacardi. Generally, it's just an excuse to have half-naked females submissive before hunky men.

We sought to modernise the image but still wanted to capture the eating experience as a moment of escape. The press coverage so far has proved our point that the old ads were rather unsympathetic to women, as it's mainly been older men saying: "Bring back our Bounty girls." We have now tried to portray the Bounty consumer as a more sophisticated individual - not a passive woman - and have concentrated on the experience of eating, rather than on cleavage and half-naked bodies. The fact that it's set in an art gallery might lead you to over-intellectualise it, which we don't want. We selected that environment because of its natural air of peace and tranquillity, which is interrupted by something - the taste of Bounty.

Research in France, where you'd think they'd prefer the old style of ad, has shown that this advert scores outstandingly highly with the public. We think the brand needed reinvigoration. We're happy that the viewer is no longer treated as a voyeur. I like to think we've moved the brand on in a responsible way.