Everyone likes talking-food mascots. They're so full of joy and spirit and love for life. But as it turns out, they're still quite likable—maybe more so—when they're full of worry, angst and existential dread.

That's the case with Mel the MilkBite, the postmodern brand mascot created by Droga5 for Kraft's new MilkBite Milk & Granola Bars. Mel isn't your ordinary carefree literal embodiment of a product, confident in his identity and mission—a big jug of flavored drink mix, say, or a large colorful piece of candy. Like the MilkBites themselves, soft-spoken Mel is several things at once—part milk, part granola—and so he finds himself agonizing over his split identity. He's a tasty morsel stuck in a not-very-tasty existential crisis. And in Droga5's new campaign, he embarks on a journey from the refrigerated dairy case to the wider world, endeavoring to understand who he is—and what he's good for.

The first spots (see below) are amusingly crafted. Mel struggles with his confidence on a blind date, fleeing an attractive woman despite her confession that she's "kind of into" his unique characteristics. He asks his parents whether they ever stopped to think, before they so carelessly combined their ingredients, about how difficult his life would be. And he annoys his fellow book-club members when he dares to identify with a similarly tortured soul from Russian literature. Mel could easily have started off on a therapist's couch, and perhaps that's where he'd be if this were a single-spot campign. But Droga5 is blowing it out into a much wider effort centered on Facebook, where video diaries, musings, photos and videos from Mel will be unveiled over the next few months, inviting consumers to join him on his journey of self-discovery.

This isn't the first ad campaign with a mascot who's not wholeheartedly peppy. (Look at Knorr's Salty the salt shaker, created by DDB in Toronto, who's the Charlie Brown of advertising mascots—a pale, bald, lovable misfit.) But it's an interesting choice to use a conflicted character to pitch a possibly confusing product—to bake the confusion into the very mascot himself.

In a world still full of cheery mascots, Mel certainly stands out. And with the nice animation and voice work, and the great little scripted vignettes, this is one sad story you might enjoy hearing for some time to come.

CREDITS

Client: Kraft Milkbite Milk & Granola Bars

Agency: Droga5, New York

Creative Chairman: David Droga

Executive Creative Directors: Ted Royer, Nik Studzinski

Head of Integrated Production: Sally-Ann Dale

ACD, Copywriter: Scott Ginsberg

ACD, Art Director: January Vernon

Creative Director: Neil Heymann

Interactive Producer: Jason Curtis

Executive Producer: Scott Chinn

Strategy: Tom Naughton

Account Director: Whitney Radia

Production Company: O Positive

Director: David Shane

Director of Photography: Eric Treml

Executive Producer: Marc Grill

Producer: Ken Licata

Interactive Production

Designers: Ben Grube, Malin Ekman

Illustrator: Rich Greco

Developer: Mikael Emtinger

Art Director: Nick Schmidt

Copywriter: David Ma

Puppet Design and Fabrication: Jim Henson Creature Shop

Executive Producer: Jason Seck

Creative Supervisor: Jason Weber

Puppet Builders: Anney Ozar, Jim Krupa

Editorial: Mackenzie Cutler

Editor: Gavin Cutler

Assistant Editor: Nathan Rodgers-Hancock

Executive Producer< Sasha Hirschfeld

VFX, Postproduction: Spontaneous

Lead Flame Artist, VFX Supervisor: Andy Milkis

Creative Director: John Leamy

Executive Producer: Chris Decker

Music: Alan Wolpert Music

Composer, Performer: Alan Wolpert

Sound: Sound Lounge

Mixer: Tom Jucarone