last week we, in conjunction with Innova and DIG communications, staged an event for client officemax. we created the world’s biggest penny tray and placed in the world’s biggest mall: the mall of america in Minneapolis.
We filled the tray with two million pennies ($20K) and invited people to take them. And take them they did. In under three hours there wasn’t a penny left in the tray.
We filmed the penny melee that ensued and put the sped-up film on our back to school youtube penny pranks channel. What is it about time-lapsed films that is so appealing? It’s the filmic equivalent of hearing a funny helium voice. it never fails to entertain. Or is it just me?
Anyway, check it out. See two million pennies disappear in 30 seconds!
Haha, wicked!
Over here in England we have a magazine called Viz (http://www.viz.co.uk/). They had a competition to win £1,000, which they advertised on the cover as “WIN A GRAND in pennies” ( “in pennies” was in tiny letters). This was about fifteen years ago or something. The photos were hilarious – someone with terrible hair and clothes sitting on a huge pile of petty change, lol. Pretty cool, though.
glad you like Guy. it felt like a social experiment. all the numbers-oriented people at the agency were convinced we couldn’t possibly empty the tray in the time. but we did.
i remember VIZ. i was a huge fan back when i lived in London. i see you too are a fan of christian simmons. jesus, what a talent!
Yeah, it was cool – that’s why I did advertising at college, so I could do stuff like that, lol.
There’s a band over here (I forget their name) but for one of their videos they threw £25000 in £5 notes into the main area of a busy London train station at rush hour and everyone went crazy, lol, looked amazing though.
Christian Simmon’s is cool. Pencil Face reminded me of Donnie Darko a lot – one of my favourites.
Viz is the best magazine around. I come from the area where it’s from (Newcastle) – the guy that started it lives in the village over from my Mum’s house, about two miles away, which is pretty cool.
i remember that video. Leftfield or someone of that vintage.
a novacastrian eh? yeah the viz guys got it right. finbarr saunders and his double entendres was brilliant!
Yeah, it might be them – did a quick scan on YouTube but couldn’t find it.
Newcastle in the North-East of England, not Australia, lol, was a little confused for a second there.
Biffa Bacon, Top Tips/Letterbocks, Drunken Bakers, Roger Mellie…they’re all good :D
it was Mansun. 1997.
Haha, brilliant – good find! They blatantly took a sly grand each from every wad.
It was a tonne of money that the Viz gave away, not a grand as I earlier stated:
“One of the earliest competitions by Viz was to win ‘a ton of money’ – the prize was in fact a metric tonne of one and two pence pieces equivalent to a few hundred pounds sterling.”
Courtesy of Wikipedia :)
my favorite was their ‘win ten benson and hedges” competition.
hahaha, they do loads of stupid stuff. One offered to “re-create D-Day in your back garden” and in a reason edition they gave the author of the best letter a billion pounds in cheese.
It would be brilliant if Viz was big in America but would the US people get it? McDonald’s aren’t the only ones to steal Top-Tips – a tabloid paper called the Daily Sport re-print them, although they do credit Viz.
I think Viz is a uniquely UK flavour. But a lot of UK stuff is big here now lately. The Office. And little britain has just shot a US version for HBO which looks really good. And I personally think the Mighty Boosh would really go down well over here.
And anyone anywhere can appreciate the travails of Buster Gonad and his Unfeasibly Large Testicles.
Unfeasibly large is a great description, lol.
Yeah, my girlfriend’s from the US and she told me a bunch of TV shows have been re-done or shown over there. She prefers the American Office, but I think she’s wrong, lol.
I remember when I was 15 and my English teacher made us write a report on our favourite ad. Everyone wrote about air-fresheners and fizzy drinks. I wrote about an ad from Viz for industrial toilet paper (made with real glass shards). The ad’s headline was: “Wipe he smile off their feaces.” She didn’t approve, haha.