The Rise of The Crazy Cart: Transforming Calimax’s Delivery Service

Today, we’re sharing the success story of the “Calimax Delivery Service” project created by Freaner Creative and Design, winners of the prestigious Graphis Advertising 2023 Gold Award. The Crazy Cart is the official mascot for Calimax, the largest supermarket chain in the northwest of Mexico. What started as a seasonal promotion has become a regular yearly event that keeps shoppers returning for more. So, come along with us as we take a shopping trip through this creative campaign for The Crazy Cart and its impact on Calimax’s success.

Passion, Imagination, and Creativity Delivered

By: Ariel Freaner

“Calimax is the largest supermarket chain in the northwest of Mexico, with over 100 supermarkets throughout Baja California and Sonora. Calimax regional market includes the Tijuana-San Diego area targeting the domestic and Hispanic markets.

“Calimax assigned Freaner Creative and Design to create and develop an advertising campaign for its supermarket chain. Ariel Freaner, designer and illustrator, created and developed a cartoon character named El Carrito Loco, which in English means the Crazy Cart.

“For this poster, the Crazy Cart is all beefed up and ready to start making deliveries with the new Calimax home delivery system. These static posters were supported by TV spots and internet video clips, with the Crazy Cart taking a phone delivery order, receiving the groceries and products, and then delivering them around happily with fun, creativity, and fancy visuals.

“On the design aspect, we took our own 1990s creation and redesigned it from the ground up. We choose a realistic look and feel on the shopping cart going from a 2D design to a 3D format—the materials to render the cart come from authentic scanned textures. We kept the cart high-tech and detailed, as well as the surroundings simple and clean.

“On the one hand, the Calimax Crazy Cart was reimagined with high-tech futuristic and racing car elements to make it impressive and technologically advanced. His wheels are potent, and its line is sleek. He also has a source of energy, knowledge, and other surprising things coming from the center of his body with the Calimax symbol, giving him a bit of a superhero appearance. On the other hand, our character also has cartoon-like characteristics such as his big eyes, movements, and physical abilities like stretching his wheels to act like hands. These characteristics make our character fun, cute, lovable, funny, friendly, and cuddly.

“We are proud to have participated and been part of Jose Fimbres and Ignacio Fimbres’s leadership to bring these new imagery changes to the Calimax brand.”

Discover more about Freaner Creative and Design here. To read more about their design work, see How Freaner Creative Used City Branding to Revamp Tijuana’s Manufacturing Image.

To see other Advertising 2023 winners, click here. To enter our Advertising 2024 competition, click here.