Millionaire sauce maker gets TV commercial (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Millionaire Brixton sauce maker gets animated commercial

8:30am Friday 20th April 2012 in News By Rachel Blundy

Few people will see themselves transformed into an animated television character in the style of Wallace and Gromit.

But for one entrepreneur from Brixton the vision has become a reality.

Levi Roots, creator of the hugely successful Reggae Reggae Sauce range, has come face to face with his alter ego in clay form.

The 50 centimetre creation, which took a team of six people almost five weeks to make, is the star of a television advert made by animation studio Aardman to promote his sauces.

Mr Roots, who expanded his business after receiving a £50,000 investment on Dragon’s Den in 2007, said: “[My character] is definitely cooler, more handsome than me.

“Seeing it on screen is like watching myself on Dragons’ Den all over again and I keep wondering ‘is that really me?’ But I love it. They’ve done a great job.”

He added: “I’ve always been a big fan of Wallace and Gromit so it’s a real treat to be made into one of their characters, if not a little surreal.”

Animators used 20kg of clay to make the 60-second advert, which features Levi cooking a barbecue in the back garden of his Brixton house. It will have its first screening on ITV on May 3.

Merlin Crossingham, Aardman’s Director, said: "To take a real human being and caricature them without misrepresenting them is quite a tough job.

"It’s so much easier to animate an animal or inanimate object and give them human attributes.

"As a result we had to create a larger than usual model to get as much detail into [Levi’s] face as possible."