What would you do if you were assigned the Spam account?  Well Dustin Black and Dan Armstrong of BBDO Minneapolis decided to dive headfirst into Spam as a punch-line.  Their vision for Spam.com looks more like a Monty Python fan site than a CPG website. 

They also developed a separate launch strategy for what appears to be a new coffee table book, The Book of Spam, but is in fact another element of the overall campaign.   They reinforce the idea that it was written by wry fans with too much time on their hands through a couple of insanely time-intensive stop-motion videos.  Toastvertising, above, required 220 pieces of bread, a blow torch, and days of filming on the author’s dining room table.

The piece de resistance, as far as I am concerned, was the casual email they sent to ThreeMinds announcing the project: “I just wanted to share a project I just finished” – four lines, no pagination, and not even a live link! It seemed so real and personal.  These guys really know their audience when it comes to seeding a viral program.

Misha Cornes