ANZUP Rude Food Cookbook
Engaged by communications company Rocket Comms for their client ANZUP Cancer Trials Group Ltd to style and production manage a fundraising cookbook.
When I was first asked to work on this project, I was a bit taken aback as it’s not the usual brief for a stylist – but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it’s such an important initiative. To create images to raise awareness about the whole ‘below the belt’ men’s business, was a challenge I could take on and produce something with style, impact and a bit of fun.
The brief:
ANZUP was looking to create a cookbook called Rude Food, which contained 30 recipes from celebrity chefs, comedians, clinicians and musicians, all of which were either styled or just sounded plain rude. Some of the contributors included Ainsley Harriet, Manu Feildel,
Nobuyuki Ura, Fast Ed, and so on. The cookbook will be a fundraiser and also a vehicle to raise awareness of men’s health below the belt.
The Client:
ANZUP is the leading cancer cooperative clinical trials group that brings together all of the professional disciplines and groups involved in researching and treating below the belt (penile, bladder, kidney, prostate and testicular) cancers and conduct high quality clinical research.
The look:
The brief came in from the client wanting the images to be styled in an elegant fashion to provide a slight contrast to the cheekiness of the campaign. Possibly integrate some of the ANZUP colours subtly through props. Quirky playfulness, rather than erotic, was the main focus for the aesthetic of the book.
I achieved this by working with a limited palette of colours based on the ANZUP logo of aqua blue, tones of brown and white.
Each recipe had to have a reference to below the belt in the styling either of the food or the props. I had a very funny time shopping and sourcing some of the props and an even funnier time on the set with the team to achieve the final images.
The scope of work:
Apart from the job of styling each recipe to fit the brief – I took on the job of production manager and brought the photographer Tim Robinson to the team to ensure the images looked fantastic. I knew he and I could work together easily and efficiently to produce what the client was looking for.
I prepared a shoot schedule and shot list, sketched up a rough idea for each recipe, so we had a plan to approach the images ahead of time.
Propped for each of the recipes and communicated with the first-time photo chef with a detailed shopping list of extra food items we might need to enhance the images.
Advised the client on chapter groupings, set up a rough pagination and added thumbnail images at the end of each day for the client to see how the images were coming together and to remind us all how the recipes might look in the book layout.
Worked closely with the client on the cover options and the chapter openers to give the designer enough images to work with once the shoot was completed.
The budget:
As the project was a fundraiser the budget was tight but not unrealistic – I worked up a shot list and schedule for each day of shooting with the photographer and the photo chef so we could capture all the images the client was after in the limited time frame.
The outcome:
The Rude Food Cookbook is truly the only place where you will find recipes such as Spotted Dick, French Crappe and Cock Em Bouche in one place. All proceeds from the sale will go directly into the hands of experts to conduct vital research and improve living outcomes for those impacted by testicular, penile, prostate, bladder and kidney cancer. This exclusive campaign was designed to encourage conversation about clinical trials and research in a cheeky way, proving to be the perfect way to have some fun in the kitchen and deliver some epic con-cock-tions.
CLIENT FEEDBACK:
'I honestly cannot express my gratitude enough for all of the work that you put into this project and for making the process a lot smoother! As we have never done something like this before, we had to roll with the punches, so I really appreciate the fact that you stuck by me as I sourced direction in terms of design and aesthetic.’
Chris Daniel
Group Account Director, Rocket Comms’
