Back To School

Proving that there really is creative life in Chicago, a new(ish) boutique agency there called The Escape Pod has put together a back-to-school program for teens on behalf of their client Office Max.

Sorta, kinda based on Demi Moore's husband's show Punk'd, the premise of the show is that music students in a high school in suburban New Jersey are told that due to poor prior performance they are in danger of having their music program pulled and, in order to save it, they must pass a test that consists of pulling together and performing the theme from 2001, A Space Odyssey.

I won't give away more of the plot, but the denouement features the hot band The All-American Rejects.

What's more, the YouTube promo above has been viewed close to a million times already. And the show itself actually ran on live TV on the CW network.

There's a more complete website for the show here

Doing a TV show for a client like Office Max is a great idea. Few things are as tied to back-to-school as the purchase of school supplies. And the whole Punk'd format is a great draw.

There are online and offline elements to the campaign which tie together nicely. And The Escape Pod managed to pull the whole thing together without ever once referring to it as "storytelling."