Protected: Elanco Flea
The brief
Elanco wanted to reconnect Advantage with a new generation of pet parents, audiences who grew up on Spider-Verse and Arcane and who don’t respond to vet in a white coat advertising. Roshan Kapoor at MBC reframed the brief away from the category’s default and toward something with a character at its centre. SuperBlimp’s contribution to the winning pitch was the visual and character led response: build the villain, not the product demo. Cap Itch became the spine of a campaign universe designed to extend from a 20 second TVC into social cutdowns, key visuals, and whatever the brand wanted to do next, built as a single character led system rather than a one off film with extra assets bolted on.
The shift was not from live action to animation. The category has been animated for years. The shift was from generic cartoons to ownable IP.
Designing Cap Itch
The villain is the hook, and Cap Itch carries the film. We pitched two visual routes, Stylised Realism and Hyper Stylised, and the hyper stylised direction won because it let us push caricature without tipping into uncanny. Anatomically plausible enough to feel wrong in a living room, cartoon enough to carry comic timing. Realistic shading with iridescent accents. Big eyes. A slouch. A silhouette you’d recognise on a shelf.
Specific beats developed in early conversations, including Cap Itch lounging with a video game controller and the entrance framed through the doorbell camera, became defining moments in the final film.
Concept Exploration and Blocking
Modeling Wireframe
Texturing, Shading and Groom
Grooming by Argentum Studio
The family and the world
Against the chaotic creature, the rest of the world had to feel calm and domestic. Flo and Marti were designed with stylised realism: grounded proportions, expressive features, hair and clothing that hold up in close ups without drifting into the uncanny. Biscuit, the cat, became the emotional anchor, carrying the comedy of the film as a warm, believable house cat.
Environments were built with a specific technical purpose. Realistic lighting, bold shapes, saturated colours, tuned to read cleanly on mobile screens where most of the audience would encounter the work.
Craft and collaboration
Animatic by Encounter Studio
The film was directed by Antonio Milo at SuperBlimp, under the creative direction of Roshan Kapoor at MBC. Roshan wrote the script. Encounter Studio developed the storyboard and animatics, translating the script into shot language and timing. From there, Antonio directed the film: designing the look, shaping performance across every beat and guiding the edit.
Character design, modelling and texturing of Cap Itch, Flo, Marti, and the environments were built in house at SuperBlimp, as was lookdev, lighting, rendering, compositing, edit, and sound design. Encounter Studio handled character animation and also modelled and rigged Biscuit and Max. Argentum Studio provided grooming lookdev on Cap Itch’s fur and moustache, and technical direction across the project, from fur pipeline and shader tech through to render optimisation.
Biscuit and Max. Modelling and rigging by Encounter Studio. Grooming lookdev by Argentum Studio.
The confrontation
The film builds to a simple payoff: the moment the household problem becomes fully visible. Biscuit squares off against Cap Itch, tired of the freeloader on the sofa, and delivers a clean kick that sends the flea recoiling toward the door. When Marti applies Advantage a beat later, Cap Itch loses his grip on the household and vanishes in a puff of smoke. Instead of explaining fleas in abstract terms, the film dramatises the nuisance as a physical presence in the room. Physical comedy built on silhouette, weight, and timing, the kind of beat that only works when character animation is hand keyed by animators who know how to land a joke.
Formats and delivery
Every deliverable rendered natively for its platform rather than cropped down from broadcast.
Broadcast TVC, 20s
Campaign key visuals
Credits
Client: Elanco (Advantage Spot On)
Agency: MBC
Agency Creative Director: Roshan Kapoor
Agency Account Director: Jill Cosh
Production: SuperBlimp
Director: Antonio Milo
Executive Producer: Mathieu Leborgne
SuperBlimp: Character Design, Modelling and Texturing (Cap Itch, Flo, Marti, Environments), Lookdev, Lighting, Rendering, Compositing, Edit, Sound Design
Encounter Studio: Storyboard, Animatic, Character Animation, Rigging, Modelling and Texturing (Biscuit, Max)
Argentum Studio: Groom, Grooming Lookdev, Technical Direction
