Doom stomps into outdoors

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Vincent Osmond, copywriter at TBWA, says the idea was to create something "big and outdoors". Osmond says the biggest challenge they faced is that "all insect killers do the same thing" and thus may not have unique selling points. So, they sought to amplify the power of the brand, by using the number of "shoe stomps" it would take to do the work of a can of Doom.

The result is that, the residents of Johannesburg will wake up to a giant billboard fitted to Noswell House, Braamfontein just opposite the main entrance to Wits University at Jan Smuts Avenue. Listeners of Kaya FM, Jozi FM and Highveld, as well as readers of Drum magazine can win daily and weekly cash prizes by correctly guessing how many shoes make up the billboard. There is also a competition running on the website.

A few thousand shoes

The billboard is literally made up of a few thousand shoes in the colours of a product can. The painstaking task of reproducing the can using shoes fell to Jade Manning, art director at TBWA. Manning has had to oversee the process of having the shoes dipped in the various colours of a can and assembled to reproduce the insect killer, which has been sold in South Africa for over 50 years.

The billboard is made up of 20 panels, measures 22m by 9m and uses a 24 colour palette to replicate the finer details of the can. Manning says his first challenge was finding a suitable location. The Braamfontein spot was chosen as much for its slow moving traffic as it was for its pedestrian traffic of Wits University students and the office workers who populate Braamfontein.

Extension of the campaign

The next challenge was sourcing shoes, and the task fell to account director, Vanessa Maselwa who found a supplier that was willing to throw in all the surplus shoes they had: from the odd shoe to ones with factory defects and a few hundred good pairs. Although shoes are the central element of the campaign, the team also produced print versions of the can, separately using fly swatters and rolled up magazines again asking how many of each it would take to replace a can of Doom.

The extension of the campaign is a drive to donate an equal number of school shoes, but not the spray painted ones, to specially identified and deserving underprivileged beneficiaries.

For more, go to www.doom.co.za or to the Facebook page.