Hellmann’s Reveals Their 3D Mayonnaise Selfie Printer

3D printing seems to be a buzzwords of sorts, especially for marketers. When any new technology emerges on the scene with so much promise, it seems as though everyone wants to utilize the media buzz around it to draw attention to their own products or services. We have seen this with Oreo, when they created a 3D cookie printer, which allowed customers to personalize the icing within the cookie, and we have seen it with countless other companies around the world.  Everyone seems to be talking about 3D printing now-a-days, so businesses figure that if they can somehow incorporate the technology into their operations, then they too will be the talk of the town.

Recently Hellmann’s unveiled a video of what they call a 3D mayonnaise printer. It’s not just a mayonnaise printer though, it’s a mayonnaise selfie generator of sorts. The printer itself utilizes a delta robot setup to extrude mayonnaise from a typical Hellmann’s squeeze bottle. The printer was placed within a food truck in a highly trafficked area in England. The attendant in the food truck would take a photo of a participant, send the photo to the printer, via an intermediary software, and 3D print a caricature out of mayonnaise in the likeness of the person on a hamburger.  After that, it was entirely up to the individual whether or not they cared to eat the burger open-faced, staring at their caricature as they bite into it, or top it with the other half of the bun, smearing the print like a water color painting in a thunderstorm.

The 3D printer, and the video associated with it, are part of a campaign by Hellmann’s called ‘Hellmann’s Summer Hacks’. The general campaign, which is targeted towards the United Kingdom, is based around ‘life hacks’, where people come up with all sorts of clever tricks, shortcuts, and ideas to make life easier and more enjoyable. Throughout the months of July and August, Hellmann’s will be releasing short clips like the one below, where clever ideas are turned into displays of summer fun. Additionally they will be releasing videos which suggest ways to reuse empty mayonnaise jars in creative, fun ways.

Based on the video, it appears that the printer does in fact do a decent job. Of course, printing a sauce like mayonnaise onto a rough textured hamburger will not exactly allow for portraits comparable to the Mona Lisa.  With that said, I think that Hellmann’s achieved what they had set out to accomplish, producing a video which will spread virally over the net, equating to some cheap effective publicity. After all, we just covered it, right?

Let us know what you think about this creative marketing tactic by Hellmann’s, in the 3D mayonaise printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.  Check out the video below: