We launched a spot starring Lionel Messi promoting the release of EA Sports’ FIFA 15, entitled “The Bitter-Sweet Taste of Football.”

The spot sees Messi hooked up to a bizarre machine mining his tears of joy from victory and sadness from bitter defeat. As the tears make their way down the Wonka-esque contraption they pass screens showing in-game footage and finally are turned into bitter defeat dark chocolate and sweet victory white chocolate bars, which are then fused together and packaged (think Kit Kat). It’s an imaginative and visually intriguing approach to the usually predictable category of sports video game advertising, even if it doesn’t do a whole lot to highlight the game’s selling points (at this point, FIFA is such a dominant franchise that hardly seems necessary).

“Football is bitter-sweet. One moment you are crying the sweet tears of victory, and the next, you are crying the bitter tears of defeat,” explained W+K Amsterdam creative director David Smith. “So what better way to show the emotion of football than to make a chocolate bar from the tears of Lionel Messi? A man who feels football more than any other man in the world.”

Creating the crazy contraption was no simple feat. W+K Amsterdam teamed up with a team of engineers and industrial Czech designers to bring the idea to life as an “actual, moving, spinning, 10-meter long installation complete with conveyor belt.” it was a  a pretty impressive piece of machinery.