Who needs yoga, meditation or aromatherapy when you can smash things to release anger and stress? That’s the philosophy behind Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam’s latest interactive campaign for Electronic Arts’ Burnout Dominator game, which is known as the king of speed and destruction. The game challenges players to face off against a series of hot-blooded rivals in tests of reckless driving.
The campaign is based on Kah Ra Shin, which originated in 19th-century Tibet. (Any similarity Kah Ra Shin many have to the word ‘crashing’ is purely incidental.) The interactive website www.kahrashin.com teaches visitors how to use the Kah Ra Shin philosophy of releasing inner peace through outer violence through several videos. One demonstrates simple object destruction, starting off with a humble pencil, while another features “freestyle” object destruction. One video shows how for extreme cases of deep rooted and pathological anger, masters prescribe a new method of release–the adrenalin-fueled Burnout Dominator.
“What everyone loves about EA’s Burnout Dominator is its pure and unabashed celebration of destruction. The truth is, it feels good to smash into things at high speed. And after a stressful day at the office, there is something even pleasantly cathartic about it. The worldwide global phenomenon, Kah Ra Shin, and its mantra ‘inner peace through outer violence’ was born from this insight,” said Mike Farr, W+K Amsterdam copywriter.
In addition to The Teachings, there is also a section on the site called the Way of the Scream, which stresses the importance of screaming to achieve inner peace. Visitors can upload their own scream, listen to other people’s and send theirs to a friend. You can also learn the history of the movement–for example how the first temple was built but then destroyed two weeks later by an overzealous disciple–and read testimonials. Each section is light on text but heavy on visuals.
“We wanted it to be full of interactive animations. It was important that it would be both rich in details and full of surprises. We also wanted to acheive this with as little text as possible so that it is very visual, easy to understand and accessible to a wide audience. I hope that the overall result makes you smile and makes the viewer want to share it with their friends,” said Joakim Borgstrom, W+K Amsterdam’s interactive creative director.
He said overall it was an easy site to create. All the animations and content within the website were built in Flash. The hardest part of the whole process was to create the backend structure that converts and feeds all the screaming videos. USSR and CCCP, both located in Amsterdam, were involved in the production of the site.
Borgstrom is pleased that instead of creating a typical gaming site, the creative team took the concept of the game to another level and created a whole movement. “The feeling of playing the game and releasing your inner demons relates directly to the teachings of this new philosophy, ‘inner peace through outer violence’. It’s a great idea with a strong concept that is stunningly executed,” he said. Along with Borgstrom and Farr, W+K Amsterdam’s creative directors Eric Quennoy and Paul Stechschulte and art director Joseph Ernst headed up the campaign.
A Similar But Different Take On A Feature Film Debut
Similar But Different is not only the moniker for the directorial duo of Dani Girdwood and Charlotte Fassler but also in some respects an apt description of their feature filmmaking debut, My Fault: London (Amazon MGM Studios). The movie, which premiered last week on Amazon Prime Video, has on one level some select elements similar to what we’re accustomed to in the young adult (YA) universe--which helps make it familiar, comfortable and relatable--yet at the same time My Fault: London brings a new, decidedly different dimension to YA entertainment, uniquely meshing action-adventure, mystery, music, romance and humor. The film captures the feel of the underground London culture, lending an authenticity and contemporary vibe that’s a departure from the norm when it comes to the adaptation of YA literature. This mesh of similar but different has served the film well in that there was some target audience skepticism initially over the notion of doing an English adaptation of the popular, fan-favorite Spanish-language novel “Culpa Mia,” the first of the “Culpables” trilogy. Thus it’s most gratifying for Girdwood and Fassler to see the social media response after the release of My Fault: London, with many viewers enthusiastically embracing the film. My Fault: London introduces us to Noah (portrayed by Asha Banks) who’s uprooted from her U.S. hometown, having to leave her boyfriend and friends behind to move with her mother (Eve Macklin) to London. Mom has a new rich husband (Ray Fearon) in London and their new residence is a mansion. There Noah meets Nick (Matthew Broome), her new stepbrother. They have an immediate mutual dislike for each other which blossoms into something quite different over time. Along the... Read More