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.
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The protagonist resents his fifty-year-old "skinny jeans wearing" boss.
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The series takes an incisive look at some pretty serious social problems, too.
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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.
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Street teams get into the action with fake brands of hand sanitizer and bottled water.
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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.
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The age-gated parallax site populates content according to the stuff you missed according to your birthdate.
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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.