Today was another hectic day at the office. Workdays can get all tangled up sometimes, serious, fraught with drama, with looming deadlines. And too much coffee.
And then you get a mysterious wooden crate in the mail. At least that’s what happened to me today. I came back to my office after a meeting to discover that a large, heavy box addressed to me had magically appeared in the center of the room. I opened it to find another box, a wooden crate, mummified in layers of bubble wrap. I struggled to get the crate out of the box, the bubble wrap off, and then I muscled the heavy crate onto my desk. What the heck was this thing? Who sent it to me? The top of the crate was postmark-branded “Blithe Hollow Cemetery” and my name and “17 of 49” were penned on the front. The crate was nailed shut. I knew I needed help and I had a feeling this was going to be something special, so I called in others.
I called our Creative Director, Jason Babler, into my office. Jason is like the kid at the birthday party who likes to open all of the other kid’s presents. He grabbed a hammer and chisel and set to opening mine.
Lifting the lid, we discovered model grass and a tiny shovel inside. “I guess ya gotta dig,” Jason said. I dug.
After we realized this was going to get messy, as the green-dyed dirt in the box started flying everywhere, we decided to moved into Make: Labs. Then disaster struck.
So what on earth did I UNearth? It’s an amazingly detailed silicone rubber zombie character from the forthcoming film, ParaNorman. LAIKA, the stop-motion animation studio behind Coraline (and the awesomely cool marketing campaign that stopped our offices three years ago), are producing this film (which opens on Aug 17). As with the Coraline “buzz marketing” campaign, where our then Art Director Daniel Carter got a customized Coraline box (1 of 50), I was chosen as a “Weird Hero” (a mantle I will gladly assume) and given ParaNorman box 17 of 49. I’m in esteemed company. Neil Gaiman got box number 2.
After the excitement had died down, and we’d cleaned up most of the zombie grave earth (that green stain better come off of the office carpet!), Jason and I talked about what brilliant marketing this is. As Jason said: “This sort of thing can be so hokey and just look like a lot of wasted money and effort, but this really rings true.” And it did. It created a special moment of magic and mayhem at the office (one I felt compelled to write about). It was a nice break from the routine of the day. In the clutches of “my” zombie’s rotted fingers was a calligraphic letter to me, actually to me. It talked about the magic of making, about not being “normal,” and about how weird kids grow up to be fascinating adults like me. The motto for their campaign is #weirdwins. I couldn’t agree more. And I will proudly display my little monument to weirdness (and successful buzz marketing) on my desk.
[Photos by Gregory Hayes]
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