Cabaret Voltaire - Secret Show Campaign

In May, I went to Edinburgh Scotland to learn about interactive media. While there, I realized how dumb of a concept concert flyers were. If pollution had the same effect on environmentalists that rave lights have epileptics, Edinburgh would have an epidemic on their hands. For my project, I creative a large interactive promotional campaign for a nightclub/venue in Edinburgh called the Cabaret Voltaire. The goal was to differentiate Cab’s quality and mystique by using unique, youthful guerilla advertising tactics instead of the standard paper flyers. It’s called the “Secret Show campaign”. You can see all of it below.

Don’t go too far out of your way to try and link the meaning behind the images and the text; there isn’t any, apart from the fact that the club is in Edinburgh and the city that is being decimated in the main picture is ALSO Edinburgh. The way you navigate around it is by pushing the little forward arrow in the bottom right of the screen. There is also a button down there that makes the presentation full screen. I suggest you push that button as well. There are some hidden presentational gems that you might be able to catch if you look hard enough or do your research*.

* The woman screaming is ACTUALLY screaming in Japanese. I suggest you find someone to translate it. I understand that this might be a little racist, playing on the stereotype that Japanese people are afraid of Godzilla, but honesty, that’s like a 1.3 out of 10 on the racism severity scale - one being interracial marriage and the garden of Eden, 10 being Israel and Palestine if every civilian is given monthly rations of grenades and elementary schools teach a class on hate crimes.

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Celebrity 8 Balls

It’s a fact that all celebrities are also great decision makers. On more than one occasion, in the midst of an untimely mental debacle I have wanted nothing more than to seek advisory from John Stamos or Patrick Stewart. Because of their constant inaccessibility though, I find myself constantly turning to my miracle billiard sphere, which directs me down the road of inevitable fate. At a recent visitation to our local Starbucks coffee store Ben and I had a revelation. Here is the exact transcript.
Jason (Barrister) – Room for cream sir?
Harry: oh…um…give me a moment.
Ben: Do you ever wish that Paul Giamatti could just tell you what to do, so you wouldn’t have to think so hard?
Harry: Everyday.
Ben: How you deal with it?
Harry: miracle billiard sphere.
Ben: I don’t know what that means.
(Then I showed him my globe and apparently it’s called a magic eight ball, which is not what I saw advertised, but he gets really upset when I speak against him, so I just went with it.)
Harry: That’d be cool if they made Paul Giamatti 8 balls so that decisions like these could be made quicker and easier.
Ben: Those probably wouldn’t sell. No one really watches Paul Giamatti movies. What about Andrew W.K. 8 Balls?
Harry: OMG! Let’s bring that up at the next meeting.
So at our next meeting, we brought up the idea of celebrity 8 balls to the rest of the troupe, and in a 4 to1 vote in favor of the idea*, celebrity billiard spheres became “Team Win Business Proposal 1”. Here is how we plan on pitching the idea to Mattel.
So….Andrew W. K. likes partying. I won’t belabor it. He puts out a disk with like, what, 10 tracks? 16 of them are about partying, -6 of them are about the dualism of human relationships. His message is direct, not like any of those bands who dabble in “profound” lyrics or “real” music. They and their degree from Berkeley School of Music just make me pensive, which is the LAST thing I want to be feeling when I observe art. People like Andrew W.K. make life easy. SO wouldn’t it be nice if you could capture their thinking patterns in a plastic ball designed like pawn in a recreational bar game. What if you could make a magic 8 ball specifically based on the advice given by Andrew W.K.?! I know what I would do. I would use it; Often.
“But Harry, what would his advice be?” you might ask if you can’t follow logical progression of thought in a written paragraph. The answer is PARTY. Every single one answer is PARTY. Shake Andrew W.K. up and you get the 5 letter one word exclamation that is the answer to questions like:
What do I do when my grandmother burns the cream of wheat the morning after my divorce papers go through and all I have with me is this room temperature bottle of Tanqueray? What should we do tonight? What should we do less of so that we don’t have to “fix everything” the next morning by going to the barbershop and buying a replacement carrot peeler and bookshelf at Wal-Mart? Do you think this sauce needs a little more cilantro?
The last one doesn’t work as much, but it’s only one word so you can’t have high expectations. Maybe by now you’ve thought to yourself, “I really wish I would have thought of that. I also would love to get out of debt.” You’re going to have to sell commercial real estate or take over your dad’s mafia position to pay your credit card bill. I already have the goods. Looking for magic 8 balls of your other favorite celebrities? Here’s a list of them and the advice they might give.
Oprah: Gain weight/lose weight/buy everyone you know a car/Take back the car
Mary-Kate Olsen: Sleep/do cocaine
Ashley Olson: look emaciated/do cocaine/look emaciated by doing cocaine
Keanu Reeves: stare blankly/try to get a job
Courtney Love: make it look like a suicide/wipe the prints
Heath Ledger: ?
Lil’ Wayne: do every drug simultaneously/don’t enunciate/get a tattoo on your face.
Winona Ryder: be a brilliant actress/shoplift/never overcome your emotional problems
Thom Yorke: No one will ever know.
John Stamos: Be awesome at everything/remarry Rebecca Romijn
You get the idea. I think we are sitting on a goldmine.
*Dave voted “no” in an act of rebellion because we wrote “Jonathan Taylor Thomas” all over his face when he was sleeping the night before. It looked hilarious the next day.
(by Harry Bauer and Ben Majoy)
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