SOCIAL STUNT
OLD SPICE_Man Down
As an Instagram stunt for Old Spice, we decided to kidnap our male model, write a ransom note in Instagram tags and ask our followers to help find him hidden in one of the 589 actual Instagram posts we created. Man Down is an Instagram manhunt. It featured a "typical" Old Spice post, but with the hunky model mysteriously missing. Users tapped to reveal this ransom note written in Instagram tags:
"Missing Male Model. 6 feet 2 inches, brown hair, vacant eyes. Last seen in this Insta photograph holding an assortment of Old Spice personal care products. Wandered off set looking at a mirror. If found somewhere within this absurdly long web of Instagram tags, please comment when you find him and we will return him to his handler. Thanks for your dedication to the brand."
It’s a tad funky to try to capture on a static website, so head to the experience on Old Spice’s instagram if curiosity burns within your soul.
Each tag led to a fully functioning, fictitious Instagram account. We created 20 separate handles and populated them with scores of stock photos with humorous captions. Each handle had its own absurd persona and backstory ranging from a woman overcoming hydrophobia through photos of a whitewater rafting trip, to a struggling furniture warehouse with a penchant for puns. All in, we created close to 600 pieces of content to pull off one single Instagram post. Smart! Also, if you're wondering, the model wound up sneaking a ride at Terry's Tandem Tours. Hi little buddy.
These are examples of the fake accounts we created; this first one is The Brunswick Renaissance Faire; each post reflected a deep-seated reverence for Medieval times and turkey legs.
Wabarshky Logistics manufactures stuff, we think. They're really amped about their summer associate program and business buzzwords. They also clearly missed the day in English class where you learn about correcting run-on sentences.
Jesse Johnson is a burgeoning herpetologist—which if you're wondering—is the actual scientific term for a snake expert. He's got a lot of love for them snakes!
Claire Wyckoff is a garden gnome enthusiast who's new to social media. Hence her confusion as to how captions work.
