A Breakfast Cereal Mascot in Drag Has Stolen the Heart of Newly Single Kermit the Frog

In the Israeli ad below, created by BBR Saatchi & Saatchi, Kermit the Frog sings a swinging love missive to Denis(e), the mascot for Unilever's Branflakes cereal.

Branflakes is targeted to women. Instead of using slim-down messages like its competitors do, the brand opted several years ago to create a character that could "voice all normal proportioned-sized women's concerns," according to the agency. Thus, Denis (sometimes known as Denise) was born—a loud, full-figured drag queen (and wedding singer!) with a thing for Branflakes.



The video with Kermit builds on an unbranded Branflakes music video launched two weeks ago (see below). The song, "Denis What Will Be With You," was about Denis's struggles being "a perfect size 10." It rose to the top of MTV's Israeli playlist and became the No. 1 clip and ringtone in the iTunes library for the country.

The Kermit version opens with the shocking "press conference" where Miss Piggy gave him the boot. It then cuts to clips of Kermit appearing to lip-sync Denis's song (not very elegantly) and closes with a shot of him facing his new love interest, who, for coherence, appears as a Muppet-style pig. (Kermit's tastes are consistent, we'll give him that.)

Below, the original Denis music video.