By Lee Umbers
The new Vogel's ad might just be the best thing since, umm, sliced bread.
The three-minute clip features eight Kiwis together for breakfast. They are given plates showing facts about their fellow diners and must guess who they are. The result of a simple premise is bringing viewers to tears and igniting conversations about the diversity, and togetherness, of Aotearoa today.
The commercial first ran during an ad break during The Block NZ on Sunday night, and by Friday the ad - celebrating 50 years of Vogel's - had attracted nearly 400,000 views on Facebook and YouTube.
Tim Deane, managing director for Goodman Fielder NZ, which makes Vogel's, thought the commercial had tugged on heartstrings, "because we've got real people and they're simply telling their stories, and... that's where the richness and magic of New Zealand and Kiwis starts to come alive".
The stars, who didn't know each other and hadn't been prepped, were filmed at Puhoi Centennial Hall on July 1-2. They include Rainbow Warrior hero Susi Newborn who stood between a harpoon and a whale, Kenyan-born Suresh Rama who can name every All Black since 1987 and Lidu Gong, a former associate professor from a university in China who speaks fluent Te Reo.
Finding the eight was "a wee bit of a Kiwi story too, because... we are a village", Deane said. "There was a wee bit of... friend of a friend of a friend, there was stuff through Facebook, and then there was some that came through... your more traditional casting agencies.
"What we tried to do was get a representative mix of New Zealanders today."
He thought that mix portrayed "a pretty important message - Although we're all diverse, we've got threads that hold us all together."
Response on social media has been overwhelmingly positive, with people saying they had been brought to tears, inspired, and reminded we're all Kiwis.
Deane, who started getting texts the first night of its screening, had been overwhelmed with the response.
"I've been in business for 30 years, I'm the same age as Vogel's, and I've never been associated with a campaign that seems to have touched Kiwis like this."
The concept for the ad started around a realisation that, "when you look at the last 50 years, New Zealand seems to have come into its own, it seems to have grown up... and we're so much more comfortable and confident in our place in the world, and we're so much more comfortable and confident in who we are.
"We figured that it would be nice to celebrate Vogel's 50th by celebrating Kiwis and celebrating New Zealand."
Versions of the commercial, made by advertising agency Shine and produced by Curious Film, will run for the rest of the year.
Background music in the ad is the heartfelt song Not Given Lightly by Kiwi singer-songwriter Chris Knox.
Mary Eagleton
68, Waiuku, Auckland
Delivering parcels for a friend around Auckland city, Mary Eagleton walked into a talent agency, "and this lady said to me, 'Oh you look like that actress Judi Dench. I want to sign you up'.
"A couple of days later they had me on Shortland Street as an extra, and within the first few months they made me a doctor."
Fourteen years later, Eagleton is Ferndale's quiet achiever, Dr Mary Tompkins - a character who's never said more than six words in a row but saved numerous lives.
And the Waiuku grandmother who loves challenges is now Shortland Street's longest-serving extra and has featured in Outrageous Fortune, Filthy Rich and TV ads.
Eagleton says none of the Vogel's ad's eight stars knew what each other did until filming started. "It was awesome, because I've played a lot of character parts over the years, and to play myself - I found quite difficult."
They bonded over the ad and had set up a Facebook group. "The people were just beautiful people... I just think we had a connection amongst the eight of us."
Eagleton was "overwhelmed" by the public response. "I've even been stopped in the street a couple of times already in Waiuku," she said, "I just can't believe how it has affected New Zealanders, really.
"It's really been heartwarming to them as well as it was to us who (were) actually doing it. I feel like I've been on cloud nine since the ad's come out."
Lidu Gong
63, Mt Roskill, Auckland - out of Qiqihar, China
A former associate professor in the English department at Qiqihar University in China, Lidu Gong is a keen student of Te Reo and has competed in kapa haka.
Gong, who will next week present a research project at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education at Toronto in Canada, believes: "We are all inherently connected. That is what we call kotahitanga - unity."
A librarian at Te Wananga o Aotearoa for the six past years, he began studying Te Reo in 2011 and was taken by its beauty and spirituality, and inspired by its proverbs. "It is a wairua language."
Tutors and colleagues had put him forward for the ad, which he enjoyed "tremendously", he says. He bought some loaves of the bread, which he shared with workmates while they watched it together.
Gong, who came to New Zealand in 1996, says the ad shows how inclusive Aotearoa now is.
He is a Kiwi. "I'm not an indigenous person but I'm indigenous."
Gong strongly believes we're all connected. "According to (the) indigenous world view, the ultimate reality is not made of atoms, but relationships."
When he presents at the Toronto conference, he will introduce himself in Mandarin, greet the audience in Te Reo, and make his presentation in English.
Susi Newborn
67, Waiheke Island - out of London
Rainbow Warrior hero Susi Newborn has campaigned around the planet for environmental causes and equality.
And she's shown on numerous occasions the courage of her convictions, including finding herself "standing between a harpoon and a whale".
Newborn, one of the founders of Greenpeace in the UK, gave the Rainbow Warrior its name in 1978, and sailed with it on anti-whaling campaigns. She was also introduced to Vogel's bread by the Kiwi cook on the ship.
Newborn recalls zipping around whaling vessels on inflatable boats in North Atlantic swells to protect the marine mammals. "The waves and the swell are immense - it's like driving into brick walls over and over again."
But she considered the giant creatures' deaths such a "huge injustice that you want to go out and do something about it".
"I can't remember feeling afraid or thinking I was brave," said Newborn, who also went "out on the iceflows to save baby seals".
Newborn came to New Zealand in 1986, to consider the fate of the Rainbow Warrior - sabotaged and sunk the previous year. "And then just fell totally in love with the place."
She has been delighted with the public reception to the Vogel's ad, which she says illustrates the fairness and inclusiveness of Kiwis. "I showed it to my flatmate and she was wiping tears away from her eyes," she said. "It certainly made me tear up the first time I saw it."
The surprising matching of unique abilities and experiences listed on the breakfast plates to their holders was "a great statement about, you never judge a book by its cover... we're all Kiwis".
Suresh Rama
64, Auckland - out of Kenya, via England
Kenyan-born Suresh Rama can name every All Black since 1987. Asked just how many there were, he tells his fellow diners: "I think there's about four million, because all of us are All Blacks."
The converted rugby follower, who moved here in 1977, was only half-joking because he reckons the All Blacks are "the heart of the nation".
"Whenever the All Blacks play, everybody stops," Rama said. "If we win, we're all happy, if we lose, we're all gutted - including the All Blacks... We're not used to All Blacks losing."
A sports fan, Rama moved to England from Kenya at 12 with his family. At his school in Leicester, he played cricket, soccer, tennis and table tennis, swam and was captain of the hockey and badminton sides.
He qualified as a pharmacist and he and his wife, also a pharmacist, decided to check out New Zealand and fell in love with it.
"I landed on a Thursday and I went to work on a Monday," said Rama, who had a pharmacy in Hamilton for 15 years, before taking over a pharmacy on K Rd - which he has owned since 1994.
"I've put my heart and soul into this country for 40 years."
The "Mooloo supporter, because that's where my rugby career started" started following the national game, learning its rules to more fully appreciate it. He reckons he would have played rugby if he'd grown up in New Zealand, probably as a halfback.
He can recall so many All Blacks' names because of his keen interest.
Rama was delighted with the public's embracing of the Vogel's ad. "I think this has really touched a nerve, saying that although there are so many different people, but... they become iconic stories about New Zealand.
"The greatest thing about New Zealand, that I've really... taken to my heart is, if you get involved in the culture and in the country, anything's possible."
Quinovic acknowledged the breaches and confirmed exemplary damages were paid.