Turning the table on Hayley Hinkley

Hayley Hinkley ACD, Art Director at Mother LA, is no stranger to Canada. After all, she is not just an alumnus of OCAD University, but she's also found herself as the #5 Art Director in Canada on the Strategy Creative Report Card (2024) while creating unconventional campaigns like Heinz Ketchup Fraud and the YWCA Metro Vancouver's Add the M, multiple category winning campaigns she created alongside her team at Rethink. Hayley continues to deliver out-of-the-box campaigns such as "This is Your Brain on Food," a campaign she created for US-based food delivery app Postmates.

American food delivery brand Postmates wanted to create a campaign with Mother LA that highlighted their premium merchants in a way that resonated with consumers. We realized that food isn’t just fuel. It's a powerful dopamine booster that hijacks your brain. “This Is Your Brain On Food” is an exhibition of food euphoria that celebrates the visceral feelings Postmates delivers. So while the other food delivery services talk about convenience, we know that what people actually crave is the feeling food gives you.

Through some highly technical (and delicious) research, we were able to distill the distinct feelings of nine different foods into various colours, textures, patterns, and sounds. To bring the campaign to life, we partnered with world-renowned restaurants and artists to create their own interpretations of each food in their own unique styles. This allowed us to visualize the trip each food triggers when you take that first bite. 

What were some unique features of the campaign?

Because each food evoked an entirely different feeling, we were able to create nine unique animation shorts and 9 OOH, all in different styles. Knowing that we needed to make each piece feel connected, we created a design system which included a simple type treatment reminiscent of a surgeon general's warning to warn people of the food feelings they are about to experience. We also pushed the trippy nature of the campaign by introducing each food feeling with a head that cracks open to reveal the food that inspired it. 

In OOH, it was more challenging to show the visceral feelings of these trips with a still image. To combat the static nature of the medium, we incorporated psychedelic patterns and colours in the backgrounds as a way to create movement through optical illusion.

Why is this particular project a fave?

This particular project is a favourite because it forced us to dig deeper than the superficial feelings we typically associate with food we eat. It's easy to say that certain foods provide comfort or excitement, but there are different layers to variations of comfort and excitement. It was exciting to dive in and analyze the exact feelings each food evoked and see which elements we associated with them. For example, when you eat a Nashville hot chicken sandwich, there's this sort of pleasurable pain that comes with it. And it doesn't happen right away; it tends to build with the heat. With a sprinkled donut, you experience this frenetic sugar rush that makes you feel like a kid again. Sushi was harder to pinpoint, but you feel an elegant simplicity and calmness while eating it. 

This was truly such a collaborative project. Having our own food experiences and then working with so many different artists and musicians to bring their own interpretations of their food feelings was an incredible process. 

Can you give us your opinion on what you think made this project a success?

This project was successful because we could be nonsensical with it. Feelings and emotions can often be that way. We feel what we feel and trying to describe a feeling can be pretty difficult. Being able to describe these feelings in a playful and visual way felt fresh and exciting. I also feel, like this project was a success because almost none of our OOH experienced graffiti. And for the ones that did, the placement was very considerate and thoughtful! That made me laugh. 

Is anyone else hungry?!? Thanks, Hayley, for sharing this mouth-watering campaign you created with your team at Mother LA. We wish you continued sucess.