Manila, Philippines — Jiang Nan hotpot and GIGIL rephrased the narrative of opting for a sneaky clean food setup with the ‘Gallery of Mess’ campaign launched in June 2025.
From a single question—the idea of the gallery came to be: ‘What if the Lacoste crocodile logo came to life and attacked the spilled [Jiang Nan] sauce on your polo?’ pondered campaign collaborator and former regional CCO at Ogilvy APAC & DDB Asia, Eugene Cheong, as shared by Jasper Cajilig of Katok, GIGIL’s social media agency.
From this idea, the campaign chose to highlight the unconventional, but highly relatable food experience: of making food smears, stains, and smudges.
“To capture this authentically, our internal team held a low-budget photoshoot at a Jiang Nan restaurant and created a genuine mess with their iconic sauces,” added Jasper.
Unlike a typical out of the rubble story, GIGIL underscored that the campaign was built on a simple and relatable insight: ‘enjoying good food is a messy experience’. Jasper also shared that they were initially briefed to feature Jiang Nan’s iconic four sauces, but opted to take the opportunity to expand the idea by featuring Jiang Nan’s soup menu as well.
From this, their only challenge was to elevate the concept of the campaign compared to the earlier release, ‘without being repetitive’.
“The brand has already established an online reputation, with customers consistently sharing positive testimonials about how good their sauces are. Instead of relying on their usual product showcases, GIGIL’s strategy was to capture this organic brand love in a more innovative and compelling way: by being relatable and creatively unusual,” added Jasper.
The Gallery of Mess campaign was led by Jasper, alongside his concept team: Natasha Calaquin and Ralph Ramos, with creative leadership from Badong Abesamis and Herbert Hernandez.
Moreover, Jiang Nan was first launched in Makati in 2017, and now has seven stores within the country. Recently, GIGIL has also announced its expansion in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a move made to broaden the independent ideas agency’s growth in Southeast Asia.
