Fable: The Tortoise and the Hare

Read the campaign story

Mercedes-Benz reworked the tortoise-and-hare fable for its 2015 Super Bowl advertising. Little Black Book’s contemporary report credits Merkley+Partners and director Robert Stromberg. The tortoise encounters a Mercedes-AMG GT and changes the expected course of the race. FXGuide’s production account describes the animated creatures, forest environments and effects created with MPC, confirming the film’s deliberately fantastical construction.

The familiar story supplies a framework the audience can recognise quickly. Viewers already understand the apparent imbalance between the competitors and expect a moral reversal. The commercial inserts the vehicle as the new reason for that reversal. Its humour depends on departing from the original lesson rather than retelling it faithfully. The car therefore occupies the turning point of the narrative.

Editorial reading: Shared cultural knowledge can reduce setup time, leaving more attention for a meaningful change. The creative work lies in choosing which expectation to preserve and which to overturn. If every element changes, recognition disappears; if nothing important changes, the reference becomes decorative. Here, the product intervention is the main alteration, connecting the surprise to the advertised model.

A borrowed story is not automatically free of responsibilities. Teams need to distinguish public-domain source material from protected modern adaptations, artwork or music. They also need to consider whether the new ending implies a misleading product claim. A fantasy race is not a measured comparison of vehicle performance and should not become encouragement to race on public roads.

A small organisation can test a familiar problem-and-resolution pattern with an original visual treatment. Identify the expectation viewers bring, then introduce a verified product capability at the turning point. Use a rough storyboard before spending on production. Ask whether people recognise the structure, understand the change and can explain the product’s role without mistaking the scene for evidence of superiority.

The sources establish the campaign’s release, creative credits and production methods. They do not demonstrate a causal sales effect. The useful lesson is not that every brand needs cinematic animation, but that a clear narrative intervention can make a product memorable. Production sophistication should serve the twist, while factual buying information remains available outside the fictional world and claims remain proportionate to evidence.

Preserve enough recognition

Keep the story structure understandable.

Make the product the change

The twist should not be an unrelated joke.

Keep fiction separate from proof

A fantasy race is not performance testing.

A small test for another brief

Editorial reading of the challenge: how to insert the product at the turning point of a familiar story to create a legible surprise.

Product-role comprehension and correct claim interpretation.

Stop if the adaptation infringes rights or encourages unsafe behaviour.

• Choose an appropriate rights-cleared story pattern.
• Place a verified capability at its turning point.
• Test the twist and factual interpretation.