If you're a cat, you have to be careful when using restaurant/bar review apps. You might just end up in the wrong part of town, at a horrifying bar straight out of your nightmares.
That's what happens in this lunatic ad for dopl, a kind of Yelp competitor, by Seattle ad agency Wexley School for Girls. A feline (with a human body) heads to a bar called Spay Lounge (red flag right there) and walks in—and finds an unspeakable scene in progress. And then things get even worse.
Dopl chose Wexley for the job because of the off-the-wall sensibility.
"We came to Wexley because we knew they were the type of agency that would get dopl's unique culture and philosophy. Their sense of humor is right up our alley," says Dennis Duckworth, the app's founder and CEO. "Initially, we were looking for something that had a guerrilla or stunt aspect to it. While we weren't totally sure what was doable within our scrappy startup budget, we were confident that Wexley would come up with something memorable and unique."
Duckworth, the lucky dog, even got to be in the video. "I, personally, wasn't expecting to be part of the final product … so that was an awesome bonus," he says. "My wife and I and other members of the dopl team had a blast being on set and being part of the video. Wexley completely understood that dopl is a labor of love for the team and they figured out a way to make sure everyone could get as involved as they wanted to be."
Ian Cohen, co-founder and executive creative director at Wexley, says it was a dream job.
"Dennis came to us with an amazing app and the wide open assignment of 'Do whatever you want,' " he says. "The budget was small, so the creative had to feel big and make noise. This kind of assignment doesn't come along often, and we spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to do something ridiculous enough to be shared but make it tangible to the app, which is all about making sure you don't end up at the wrong place. Dogs humping the crap out of each other was really just a sweet byproduct of this really intelligent thinking."
Cohen adds: "We also know that for the younger skewed audience that dopl targets, this video isn't even that racy. It's just fun."
Dopl bills itself as an app that learns the user's likes through an intelligent custom "doplrithm." Users input preferences into the app when they join and provide ratings along the way, leading to smarter recommendations over time.
CREDITS
Client: dopl
CEO: Dennis Duckworth
Agency: Wexley School for Girls
Exec Creative Dir: Ian Cohen
Creative Director Patrick Mullins:
Director Of Production: Gabe Hajiani
Associate Producer Tara Cooke:
Art Director Evan Bross:
Copywriter Paul Feldmann :
Project Manager Amy Lower:
Account Director: Jordan Karr
Account Manager: Nick Minnott
Director: Ian Cohen
DP: Chris Bell
AC: Coburn Erksine
Gaffer: Vincent Klimek
Key Grip: Kerry Flanagan
Swing: Isaac Lane
Production Designer: John Lavin
Wardrobe Designer: Collette Jones
Wardrobe Assist: Gwen Stubbs
Editorial Co: Bronson & Bronson
Editor: Mather McKallor
Audio Co: Pure Audio
Sound Designer/Mixer: Scott Weis