How do you turn deodorant into "Skin Care for your Whole Body?"

Quirk Director Emily Draper pulls back the curtain on our latest spot for Lume Deodorant. If you think modern commercials are all CGI and stock music, think again! From scripts to screen, here are the key strategic elements we brought to life:

🎬 It’s About the Science: We moved away from traditional deodorant messaging to bring to life LUME’s sweet spot: skin chemistry solution. This dictated a clean space-age aesthetic, utilizing high-school chemistry color scales (remember the PH scale?) and rainbow dial concepts to reinforce the brand's scientific authority.

🎬 The Social-First Hook:  Even on TV & OTT , the first 1-2s are king. We intentionally experimented with weird hooks - inspired by ASMR and "slime" content, we created frames that felt slightly off to trigger a psychological lean-in response from viewers and increase view-through.

🎬 Production Agility & Practical Innovation:  At Quirk, creative constraints often lead to the most efficient solutions. With a single team under one room, we combined practical sets, VFX animation and post all towards a high-end, tactile look that feels grounded and authentic.

Anchored by Fosse-inspired choreography - we pushed the boundaries of what a deodorant ad can be. Check out the full interview above to see how it all came together!

Transcript below:

Emily: When we were working on this brief, we were really struck by the science of LUME. It’s truly a skin chemistry solution to body odor, which made us think: Is this what we traditionally think of as deodorant, or is it really like skincare for your whole body?

Gaelan: How did the partners feel about that direction?

Emily: At first, I think our client partners were like, "Sounds weird... sounds off." But then when we got into the details, they really liked where we took it.

Gaelan: Hell yeah. What were some of those specific details?

Emily: Since we were treating it like a science-backed skincare brand, we leaned into this clean, "space age" look. We also used the colors of the pH scale—if you remember 그 from high school. That’s actually where that rainbow dial concept came from.

Gaelan: Love it. That’s one of my favorite parts of the ad. Now, what is the deal with this deodorant "swishing" shot?

Emily: We’re really experimenting with social-first hooks. I was very inspired by ASMR and "slime" content—shots that are just a little bit weird or "wrong" so the viewer leans in and goes, "Wait, what?" If you look at the very beginning of the shot, you’ll see her hand kind of pine for the angle. That’s what we were going for there.

Gaelan: That’s awesome. Talk me through the pre-pro and the actual shoot day.

Emily: This was all shot in-studio, and almost all of the effects are actually practical. We had a camera hoisted 20 feet into the air, and the colored panels were giant pieces of craft paper, meticulously measured and laid out.

Emily: The biggest challenge was the dance in the opening scene. When I first realized I had to choreograph a dance, I was like, "Okay, I am going to ruin this commercial." I don’t know anything about dance! But then I studied some Fosse dancing and synchronized swimming sequences. I only needed about 12 beats of choreo, so I came up with it and I think it worked pretty well.