When Fraser Bell walked through the studio doors, I honestly couldn’t believe my luck. Mr Whippy, standing there in front of me, and not in the way you might expect, either. Just a young, normal guy from Matakana with a very cool idea and a vivid vision of what he wanted to see on the road.
He’d bought a new van and had this picture in his head of creating something that would feel instantly familiar. The more we talked about it, the more obvious it became that everyone already carries their own version of Mr Whippy around with them, whether they realise it or not, and that version is surprisingly consistent. It’s tied to growing up here, to summers and camping trips and that moment where you hear the music before you see anything at all, and by the time the van comes into view, you have already had your fingers deep in your parents' pockets in desperate search of spare change.
That’s what made this project interesting.
We weren't looking to butcher an important piece of kiwi history by creating our own version of the memory. We were working with something that already exists in people’s mind and bringing it back into the world in a way that feels familiar, and without feeling like an imitation or a reinterpretation, which is a very easy line to cross when you’re working with something this nostalgic.
What I enjoyed most about it was how immediate the reaction is. You show the van to someone 50+, a friend, or even my five-year-old, who didn't grow up in that era, and it instantly falls in that place of recognition, unmistakably Mr Whippy – but the retro kind – on a modern van.
Good Thunder doesn't often get the chance to work on something like this. Most of our work sits in a more corporate or high-end space. But this was different in a way that felt refreshing, playful, and for me personally, just really enjoyable to spend time on.
Fraser has been great to work with through all of it, clear in what he was after and willing to back that all the way through, which always shows in the end result. Seeing it out and about now gives that 'Yipee, it's Mr Whippy' feeling. It's been one of those projects where the work steps out of the studio and becomes something that brings joy to people, which is the best part of it.
