Snickers turned 20,000 stadium seats into a Paul Trevillion flipbook for Pelé

Snickers enlisted Irish International and hybrid production company Piranha Bar to open its 'Play Like Pelé' campaign with an animated tribute uniting Pelé with his famous illustrator.

As Pelé walks onto the pitch, 20,000 empty stadium seats flip like a giant flipbook, revealing Paul Trevillion's drawings of the young Pelé storeys high.

The stadium was entirely rendered in CG and animated seat by seat: the 20,000 seats, reskinned from blue into Snickers' brown, white, red and blue, flip in sequence like a flipbook designed by Paul Trevillion, who masterminds the flowing illustrations from his seat in the stands while the real Pelé watches from the pitch. Trevillion, an ardent Pelé fan, provided the illustrations that formed the animation's basis; the real Pelé was filmed in London. The 20- and 30-second spots launched on TV and online on 5 May 2017.

The film launched the 'Play Like Pelé' campaign on TV and online from 5 May 2017, and united Trevillion with his muse 'in a totally unexpected way' — his drawings appearing several storeys high, with not a drop of paint required. The source reports no viewership figures.

To launch its 'Play Like Pelé' campaign, Snickers wanted more than an archive montage. Creative agency Irish International and hybrid production company Piranha Bar imagined the tribute as architecture: an entire football stadium animated into a flipbook of the great man's youngest self.

In the film, Pelé walks out onto an apparently empty pitch — and the stadium goes wild. Twenty thousand seats, dressed in Snickers' brown, white, red and blue, flip in sequence like the pages of a book, revealing vibrant drawings of the young Pelé by the famous sports illustrator Paul Trevillion, who sketches the flowing illustrations from his seat in the stands while the real Pelé watches in admiration.

Nothing was painted: Piranha Bar rendered the whole stadium in CG, animating each seat while filming the real Pelé in London. Director Gavin Kelly called it 'a spectacular salute to soccer's most iconic player' and a chance to unite Trevillion with his famous muse 'in a totally unexpected way'. The 20- and 30-second spots launched on TV and online on 5 May 2017.

Pelé has been honoured with montages for decades; a structural gag — seats as flipbook pages — made the tribute feel new rather than commemorative.

Casting the real illustrator inside the fiction gives the animation an author and a story, not just a style.

Filming the ageing Pelé reacting to drawings of his younger self adds the emotional beat the spectacle pays off.

Full CG let the production restage the stadium in Snickers' brand colours without repainting a single physical seat.

Old media made monumental: a flipbook the size of a stadium gives a tribute both childlike warmth and spectacle no single hero shot could match.

The spots anchored the launch of 'Play Like Pelé' across TV and online from 5 May 2017. The source article reports no viewership or sales figures.