Pleasure makes us human. - Lavazza | Clapboard Ad Archive

Lavazza’s Pleasure makes us human campaign, developed by VML and launched in the Year 2024 across Italy and the United States, is a masterclass in narrative-driven brand communication for the competitive Food & Drink market. Set against the everyday hum of an office, the film introduces Luigi—your new best mate and, as subtly implied, a nonhuman or robotic observer—who is the linchpin of a story focused on one of coffee’s most universally understood roles: delivering a moment of pure sensory pleasure that defines what it means to be human. Every day, Luigi silently tracks the visible enjoyment his colleagues experience when drinking Lavazza coffee, their faces lighting up in genuine satisfaction; soon, this outsider’s curiosity grows into a longing to taste what, for everyone else, seems almost magical in its simplicity. The narrative’s tension is built on the question of whether Luigi, a character excluded by nature from the ritual, can ever feel the emotional and physical delight so readily accessible to his coworkers. This insight taps directly into the anthropological appeal at the heart of Lavazza’s brand strategy—framing their coffee not merely as a product, but as a catalyst for deeply human connection and pleasure—a positioning that sits distinct from category competitors like Starbucks’ third-place ethos or Nespresso’s luxury club promise. Superbly leveraging what Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#5—Exemplary Story, the campaign places the product at the very center of the plot and resolution: the coffee is not an incidental prop or benefit, but the essential object of Luigi’s transformation and the campaign’s emotional pay-off. By anthropomorphizing the outsider’s yearning, Lavazza and VML invite viewers to project their own rituals and moments of escape into the narrative, encouraging a renewed appreciation for those everyday pleasures often taken for granted. The decision to launch concurrently in Italy—where Lavazza’s heritage runs deep—and the United States—where aspirational European coffee culture meets mass-market reach—amplifies the emotional resonance, and with viewership topping 8.6 million, the campaign has clearly ignited widespread engagement and conversation. The campaign earns 72/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. This film’s deft fusion of curiosity, warmth, and longing signals a shift toward richer character-driven storytelling in the drinks category, where product experience is portrayed as both emotionally aspirational and universally relatable.