How Hartley's Wobbling Around Brought Jelly Pots Back to British TV
Hartley's Wobbling Around is a 2014 UK television film created by London agency Karmarama to relaunch the Hartley's Jelly Pots brand above the line after years of advertising absence, using the product's distinctive wobbling texture as the central creative idea and the tagline "They can Hartley contain themselves."
The campaign launched on 30 August 2014, as reported by The Drum, making it the first television campaign Karmarama produced for Hartley's following the agency's appointment in December 2013. That appointment itself came after a competitive three-way pitch process that began in May 2013, per The Drum. The significance of the moment was considerable: as Campaign reported in December 2013, Hartley's and sister brand Sun-Pat had been "ignored for years" before Hain Daniels committed to returning them to above-the-line advertising. In the United Kingdom, where Hartley's holds a longstanding position as a household name in ambient prepared jellies and children's lunchbox desserts, that return to screens carried genuine brand-building weight.
The campaign's sole media asset is a television film, archived on Clapboard.com as published in September 2014. Its product focus is the Hartley's Jelly Pots range, and its creative premise is built entirely around the physical behaviour of set jelly — the wobble — rather than around flavour, nutrition, or occasion. Hain Daniels managing director David Atkinson commented on the campaign at launch, according to The Drum, signalling the strategic importance the parent company placed on reactivating the Hartley's brand in the United Kingdom. The Clapboard Score for Wobbling Around stands at 63 out of 100, reflecting a competent and charming execution that nonetheless stops short of the creative ambition that defines benchmark-level food and drink advertising.
Karmarama identified a singular product truth to anchor the Hartley's Jelly Pots relaunch. The wobble is not incidental to jelly — it is the defining sensory signal that communicates freshness, set texture, and the playfulness that makes the product appealing to both children and nostalgic adults across the United Kingdom. By making the wobble the campaign's entire creative rationale, the agency sidestepped the crowded and largely undifferentiated territory of flavour and ingredient messaging that characterises much of the ambient dessert category.
The strategic context is important. Hain Celestial acquired Hartley's from Premier Foods in October 2012 for £200 million, according to baybottles.com, a transaction that also brought Gale's honey, Robertson's squash, and Frank Cooper's marmalade into the group. Hain Celestial subsequently established Hain Daniels as its UK subsidiary. The acquisition signalled an intention to invest in these heritage British brands, but as Campaign noted, Hartley's had been without meaningful above-the-line support for a prolonged period before the Karmarama appointment. Returning to television in the United Kingdom required not only a creative platform but a brand reintroduction to consumers who had seen little advertising activity from Hartley's in recent memory.
In the UK ambient dessert and prepared jelly category, Hartley's competes with own-label supermarket products that undercut on price and with brands such as Green's, which offers jelly crystals and make-at-home formats. The strategic choice to lead with texture rather than value or variety positioned Hartley's Jelly Pots as the emotionally resonant, experientially distinct option in the category. Planning director Dan Hill and planner Patti Cowan at Karmarama shaped the consumer insight that underpinned this approach, as documented by The Drum and Clapboard.com.
Director Chris Cairns helmed the Wobbling Around film for Hartley's through production company Partizan. The execution combines live jelly, puppetry, and additional production techniques to animate the wobble as a character-driven physical comedy, according to production details documented by The Drum and Clapboard.com. The result is a montage of jelly pots wobbling across a variety of scenarios, each designed to make the product's texture feel expressive, joyful, and almost anthropomorphic.
Cairns and director of photography Matt Day constructed the film around controlled, high-clarity shots of the jelly itself, allowing the wobble to register on screen with the kind of tactile immediacy that is difficult to achieve with animated or purely CGI-led food advertising. The decision to shoot live jelly as the primary subject, rather than relying on post-production enhancement alone, gives the film a physical warmth that aligns with Hartley's positioning as an approachable, unpretentious British brand. Producer Monica Domanska and production manager Daisy Gautier oversaw the physical production, with the campaign's logistical complexity made evident by the need to choreograph consistent, repeatable wobbling behaviour from a product that responds unpredictably to movement and temperature.
At the agency, creative directors Sam Walker and Joe De Souza led the creative development, supported by senior creatives Tom Woodington and Robin Temple. Business director Tess Cannon, account director George Barton, and agency producer Jenny O'Connell managed the client relationship and production pipeline at Karmarama, as reported by The Drum and documented on Clapboard.com. The tagline "They can Hartley contain themselves" demonstrates a light, pun-led wit that sits comfortably within the British food advertising tradition — self-aware without being alienating, and product-specific without being literal.
No verified performance data for Wobbling Around is publicly available. No published sales lift figures, brand tracking results, or media effectiveness metrics have been attributed to the campaign in any publicly accessible source, and no award wins for the work have been identified at Cannes Lions, the Effies, One Show, D&AD, the Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, or WARC Awards.
Structural analysis of the campaign suggests it fulfils its primary objectives with reasonable efficiency. The decision to return Hartley's to television in the United Kingdom after a prolonged above-the-line absence is itself a significant media act — presence in broadcast television remains one of the most effective mechanisms for rebuilding brand salience in the UK, particularly for heritage grocery brands targeting family households. The wobble as a creative device is both distinctive and memorable, offering clear brand linkage because no other product in the ambient dessert category owns the same physical behaviour.
The montage format deployed across the film maximises the number of wobble moments within a standard spot duration, reinforcing the central idea through repetition without relying on narrative complexity. This is a pragmatic structural choice for a relaunch campaign where the first priority is recognition and emotional warmth rather than storytelling depth. The pun-driven tagline adds a layer of British character that aids recall. Against the Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100, the campaign reads as a solid, purposeful piece of brand advertising that achieves category distinctiveness without reaching the creative ambition of the most awarded food and drink work produced in the United Kingdom during the same period.
Wobbling Around is a 2014 UK television film created by Karmarama for Hartley's Jelly Pots. It marked the brand's first television campaign from Karmarama following their appointment in December 2013. The film uses the jelly pot's distinctive wobbling texture as its central creative idea, with the tagline "They can Hartley contain themselves."
Chris Cairns directed the Wobbling Around film for Hartley's through production company Partizan. Director of photography Matt Day shot the live jelly footage. At Karmarama, creative directors Sam Walker and Joe De Souza led the creative, supported by senior creatives Tom Woodington and Robin Temple, as documented by The Drum and Clapboard.com.
Hain Daniels, Hartley's UK parent company following Hain Celestial's acquisition of the brand in 2012, committed to returning Hartley's to above-the-line advertising after a prolonged absence. As Campaign reported, Hartley's had been ignored for years before Karmarama's appointment and the 2014 television relaunch in the United Kingdom.
Wobbling Around did not win awards at Cannes Lions, the Effies, One Show, D&AD, the Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, or WARC Awards. The campaign holds a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100, reflecting a competent and distinctive execution without reaching the level of the most celebrated food and drink advertising from the United Kingdom in 2014.
Karmarama, the London advertising agency, created Wobbling Around for Hartley's. Karmarama was appointed to the Hartley's account in December 2013 following a three-way pitch that began in May 2013, as reported by The Drum. Wobbling Around, launched 30 August 2014, was the first television campaign Karmarama produced for the brand.
Wobbling Around promotes Hartley's Jelly Pots, an ambient prepared jelly product sold in the United Kingdom. The campaign centres on the Jelly Pots' physical wobbling texture as its primary creative device, positioning the product through sensory distinctiveness rather than flavour or nutritional messaging within the UK ambient dessert category.
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