When Pip & Nut set out to create their first advert, the ambition was clear from the very beginning: it had to feel charming, beautifully crafted and unmistakably true to the brand.

As a first piece of advertising, the work carried real importance. The team wanted something playful and memorable, but also polished enough to reflect the quality of the product itself. Every detail mattered — from the personality of the squirrel to the way the jar appeared on screen.

Scary Robots came to the project through Squadron, who recommended us to Pip & Nut. The advert was directed by Ali Dickinson, with Daniel Wimborne production managing from the Scary Robots side, and Jason Attar leading the edit and AI image process using a blend of generative tools, Photoshop and Premiere Pro. On the client side, Jacq Ellis-Jones, Head of Marketing at Pip & Nut, was closely involved throughout, helping guide the creative and protect the brand’s high standards.

From the start, this was never about using AI as a shortcut. It was about finding the right combination of creative direction, image-making, practical production, post-production and careful human judgement to deliver a great advert.

The brief

The creative idea centred on a red squirrel encountering a jar of Pip & Nut peanut butter and becoming completely mesmerised by it.

The setup was simple and instantly understandable. Against a clean white studio background, the squirrel appears, picks up a nut, looks off camera and notices the jar. From there, the story unfolds through close-ups of the squirrel, the product, and a final comic beat in which the squirrel steals the jar and pushes it out of frame.

It was a lovely premise: visual, funny and full of character. But the execution had to be exact. For the idea to work, the squirrel needed to feel real, expressive and believable — not like a digital effect.

Building from real references

One of the most important starting points was a set of original photographs of red squirrels taken in Sweden. Pip & Nut wanted the squirrel in the advert to be rooted in those references, rather than becoming a generic animated or imagined animal.

That gave the whole process a strong visual anchor.

We studied the characteristics of the squirrel in the photographs — its colouring, proportions, markings, expression and overall feel — and used those details to guide the creation of the character. Throughout the project, we continued to return to those references to make sure the squirrel remained consistent and faithful to the original source material.

That consistency was crucial. Across a project with many drafts and refinements, it is easy for small details to shift. By continually checking back against the original photography, we were able to keep the squirrel’s identity intact from shot to shot.

Developing the film

The early stage involved exploring several creative routes and testing how the story could work on screen. Once a preferred direction began to emerge, the team focused on refining the performance, timing and structure of the advert.

The squirrel needed to hit very specific story beats: picking up the nut, noticing the jar, becoming transfixed, disappearing from frame, and finally making off with the product. Achieving that required a great deal of experimentation and careful editing.

The process went through around 20 iterations. Each version helped sharpen the rhythm of the film, improve the squirrel’s performance and clarify the ending.

A particularly important moment was the close-up of the squirrel seeing the jar reflected in its eyes. That shot carried a lot of the charm of the advert. It needed to communicate the squirrel’s total fascination with the product, while still feeling natural and believable. To get it right, the team used detailed Photoshop work alongside the wider post-production process, carefully building and refining the reflection so it sat convincingly within the shot.

Protecting the product

While the squirrel was the emotional centre of the advert, the Pip & Nut jar was just as important.

The product has a very particular physical quality, especially in the label and finish. The paper texture, embossed and debossed details, ridges and gloss all contribute to how premium and tactile the jar feels in real life. Pip & Nut were understandably focused on making sure that came through on screen.

As the process developed, it became clear that the best way to protect the product detail was to bring in a practical shoot. The team collectively decided to shoot real jars using motion control, ensuring the product retained its physical presence and finish.

That work was handled by The Forge in East London, who carried out the physical shoot, compositing and colour grade. Their contribution was key to bringing the real product shots together with the squirrel performance and giving the finished piece a polished, cohesive look.

Finding the final beat

Late in the process, one simple visual idea helped unlock the ending.

After the squirrel notices the jar, we cut back to the space where it had been — but the squirrel is gone. All that remains is the nut, gently rocking back and forwards.

That small gag created the perfect bridge into the final shot. The squirrel reappears, now fully committed to stealing the jar, and pushes it out of frame.

To make that work, The Forge shot the real jar with a rocking motion that could match the squirrel’s movement. The final shot became a carefully crafted blend of practical product footage, post-production and character performance.

It was a good example of the wider approach to the project: use the right method for the right moment. Sometimes that meant image generation. Sometimes it meant Photoshop. Sometimes it meant editing. And sometimes it meant putting a real jar in front of a camera.

A collaborative production

Although AI played an important role in the making of the advert, the finished film was the result of a very human, highly collaborative process.

Ali Dickinson’s direction was central to knowing how far to push the idea and when a shot had reached the right point. Pip & Nut’s attention to detail helped keep the work focused on quality. Scary Robots developed and refined the squirrel performance, edit and image work. The Forge brought precision, polish and practical production expertise to the product shots, compositing and grade.

The project was creatively challenging because the bar was high. Everyone involved was working to make the film feel effortless, funny and real. The aim was not for the audience to notice the technique behind it, but simply to enjoy the story of a squirrel becoming completely obsessed with a jar of Pip & Nut.

The result

The finished advert delivered a charming, memorable and highly polished piece of work for Pip & Nut’s first campaign.

The squirrel felt expressive and believable. The jar retained the quality and tactility of the real product. The final gag gave the film a clear comic payoff. Most importantly, the advert felt true to the brand: playful, warm, premium and distinctive.

In public testing, the advert scored in the top 1% of all adverts — a rare result across any production method.

For Scary Robots, the project showed what can happen when new creative tools are combined with strong direction, traditional craft and a genuinely collaborative production process. The success of the film came not from any single technique, but from the blend: real references, careful image-making, detailed Photoshop work, practical shooting, compositing, colour grading, editing and a client team determined to make the work excellent.

The result was not just an AI-generated squirrel advert. It was a hybrid piece of creative production — built with care, taste and a lot of human craft.

Bringing a mischievous red squirrel to life for Pip & Nut’s first advert