It's a story that we know all too well. Steve Coogan's portrayal of a disconsolate creative director on Showtime's HAPPYISH inspired me to pitch a highly subversive campaign to launch the series.
The protagonist resents his fifty-year-old "skinny jeans wearing" boss.
The series takes an incisive look at some pretty serious social problems, too.
The idea was to use subversive ads to reflect on the nature of Thom's world. Although Thom decries MadMen, the vintage look recalls the golden age of advertising.
Street teams get into the action with fake brands of hand sanitizer and bottled water.
Steve Coogan's character is being displaced by a youth moveement at the agency. This vending machine dispenses nostalgic Gen-X items. They're free if you're over thirty. They cost 50¢ if you're under thirty.
The age-gated parallax site populates content according to the stuff you missed according to your birthdate.
Something about this series suggested that it would be fitting if people watched it at work. I devised a "Boss Button" that would switch between the online stream and a fake webinar hosted by an insane freelance creative director. We filmed the following roughcut as FPO. If you're in the communications industry this will feel familiar.
