THE TWITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO FAME
AKA ‘Advertising at the Speed of Culture’, (Stolen from Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Digital Officer, TBWA Worldwide.):
“On March 1st a young man called Paul Smith departed England for thirty days. His sole stated aim is to travel as much as the globe as possible with the help of the people on Twitter. Thus ‘Twitchhiker’ was born.
‘Twitchhiker’ is on the cusp of becoming an on-line phenomena. He has got over 5ooo followers and is growing.
He doesn’t want his trip paid for-that would completely nullify the idea. But some help would be fine and Dandy.
To coincide with the global launch of the new Visa campaign, we give him a pre loaded Visa card with US$1000 on it, and he liked that idea. Enough to know he can eat on a daily basis. (He would put half towards the charity benefiting from the trip. “Charity: Water”)
So he set sail on Sunday from Newcastle to Amsterdam, the Brussels, then Paris, then wherever…
Adds TBWA\Whybin, Auckland ECD, Andy Blood: “And I just found out he wore our agency T shirt for the first two legs, and in the photostream on Flickr you’ll see he also packed the Visa cards.”
His progress can be followed on Twitter, google maps, Flickr, etc
12 Comments
This is a BIG idea! You could use this in so many other ways… what if you got someone to sit outside a shop in a queue and only use the advertised product to get stuff? No, wait, think bigger… what if someone made a WHOLE RESTAURANT just using the advertised product? Would that work?
Wait a minute, no, isn’t this a big like that guy who lived for a year buying everything online?
Actually, cancel all that – just saw the reference to Twitter, and that makes it a social networking idea and therefore fresh and original.
Sitter for a Plastic Lion. 100%.
Apparently the T shirt is made from fibres made from the CEO’s chopped-up company credit card.
And the press ads are printed with ink made from the carcasses of the laid off staffers after they were thrown off the roof.
stick to your press ads lads.
Combining ideas from here and there to create a new idea is one thing; bolting apsects of recently awarded ads onto a social networking trend and calling it original just isn’t.
Fail.
2.58 is that you Dave?
Beer Delivery + Yellow Treehouse = not as good as either
On the cusp of being an online phenomena?
He’d need to split in two for that to happen.
And that WOULD be phenomenal.
The word, chickens, is phenomenon.
Or, in TXT SPK, FNMNN
Guys, (Gals), it’s just a funny idea. We got wind of this three weeks ago. Paul is very happy.Doesn’t really have anything to do with anything.
So shut the fuck up. Cheers. AB
ha. good on you andy.
Keep em coming.
And know that you’ll part of our Cyber Lions entry. (Your first for Cannes, for most of you.) Also, there’ll be a new category in Axis next year called ‘Speed’ . You heard it hear first. And you know what, that rules most of you out.
Cheers!
Andy Blood.
P.S And will the person that keeps posting as ‘Andy Blood’ shut the fuck up.
“He doesn’t want his trip paid for-that would completely nullify the idea. But some help would be fine and Dandy.”
Wha-a-a? Does he want some fucking money or not?
Andy, if you’re reading this, be aware that someone is posting illiterate messages and using your name.
And know that you’ll part of our Cyber Lions entry, indeed.