A Latin Kick: Kung Fu Panda and Top Chef Duos

Universal wanted to reach Multi-cultural audiences, specifically Hispanic and AAPI. Knowing that Kung Fu Panda's beloved lead character, Po, is a food enthusiast, we created social content, in English and Spanish, with Asian and Hispanic talent from the Top Chef world: Bravo's Top Chef and Telemundo's Top Chef VIP.

Humor was at the core of the audience's franchise affinity and Jack Black’s resurgence as the inimitable Po presented an opportunity to broaden audiences through influencer-led social media content. Leveraging his impressive fan base on social, we crafted a made-for-social video with Jack Black providing the narration and threading his unique brand of humor throughout the piece.

Authentic representation and accurate depiction of Chinese culture was important to the studio, as was their interest in engaging US Hispanic fans. In the spirit of the reality competition show, we asked Jack Black to challenge two of the most popular past contestants from the franchises -- Asian chef Shirley Chung (from Bravo’s Top Chef) and Afro-Latina Chef Chiky Bombom (Telemundo’s Top Chef VIP) to band together and create an Asian-Latino fusion recipe that gives a Latin Kick to Po's favorite dish: dumplings!

The result was a fun, bilingual, multicultural social video that resonated with fans. Universal Pictures was delighted with the content as this was one of the first campaigns, anchored in culture, that leveraged Top Chef and Top Chef VIP talent to support the film’s messaging.