Dolmio reclaims family dinnertime with the Pepper Hacker
Technology has hijacked family dinnertime. To help bring families together for dinner, Dolmio and Clemenger BBDO Sydney have created the Pepper Hacker. It cracks pepper, shuts down TVs, wipes out WiFi and disables mobile devices to reclaim family dinnertime.
Responding to research[1] investigating Australians' dependence on technology, which found that two thirds of Aussies households report arguments from over use of technology at dinner, and four out of five (78%) saying it should be banned at the table, the new Dolmio campaign seeks to help more families connect at dinner time with the Dolmio Pepper Hacker.
Aside from seasoning your spaghetti, the DolmioÂź Pepper Hacker has another very unique secret feature. With one twist the seemingly normal pepper grinder will power down TVs, shut off Wi-Fi and mobile apps, taking away the dinner time distractions.
To demonstrate how families connect when they disconnect, DolmioÂź provided frustrated Aussie mums with a Pepper Hacker to help them reclaim dinner time and stop technology commandeering their family time. DolmioÂź secretly filmed the reactions of the technology obsessed families once their tech was switched off and dinner was served.
Says Richard Stear, marketing director at Mars Food Australia: "We believe that meals shared with family and friends are often distracted by the very technology that is supposed to bring us closer together, so we've created the Dolmio Pepper Hacker to help connect us with the people in front of us.
"The Dolmio Pepper Hacker might not be available to every household yet but we believe that our experiment perfectly shows that once you disconnect from your technology at the dinner table you can really connect as a family."
Says Paul Nagy, executive creative director, Clemenger BBDO Sydney: "I have three daughters, aged four to 13, and I can tell you that the more connected the world is, the more disconnected we are at home. If I've got a problem with my iPad, I hand it to my four year-old to fix it for me.
"Dolmio wanted us to reconnect families at dinnertime, so naturally we crossed a pepper cracker with something like an EMP (one of those electromagnetic gadgets George Clooney used in one of those 'Oceans' movies that knocks out anything technical) and created the Dolmio Pepper Hacker. Seriously, we did. One turn of the grinder and you don't just get a sprinkle of pepper - you get 30 minutes of tech-free, uninterrupted family time - whether they like it or not. Having used it at home for a couple of weeks now, I can whole-heartedly say it is one of the greatest things I've ever been a part of creating. Dinner time is fun again."
