MINI USA DOES 'NOT NORMAL'
Mini USA are embracing the “not normal” for their October sales campaign of the same name. They kicked it off with a typically irreverent video shot in Berlin and featuring the song “No Way” by The Naked and Famous.
The video is packed with dazzling displays of video art, acrobatics and wild pyrotechnics.
It was developed by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, San Fransisco. Berlin-based artist and director Ralf Schmerberg worked with a team of creatives, including photographer, David Blinkk and Frank Griebe – known for his work on the cult classic Lola rennt (Run Lola Run).
As part of the campaign agency Hyperakt, New York, has also created an infographic of the “Ideal Hipster Roadtrip”, which maps out the locations in America with activities to do which - you will no doubt guess – are not normal.
Travelling from Bemijdi, Minnesota, all around to Seattle, the Hipster Road Trip has one: visiting the statue of Paul Bunyan (the world’s largest hipster), picking up some vinyl at Saddle Creek Shop, taking Instagram photos of a cornfield, seeing a band no one’s heard of at Pitchfork Music Festival, shopping at Thrift Store USA in Norfolk, getting an ironic tattoo, visiting the Pinball Hall of Fame, pillaging the largest indie bookstore in the world and buying a siphon-brewed cup of coffee for $14.
“We couldn't resist this one,” says Hyperakt.
“We admit it. We love MINI. Most normal car brands don't have much personality, but MINI is not normal. It's feisty, it's fun, it's joyful and it's not afraid to be different. To celebrate this "not normalness", we came up with a series of road trips illustrating that the America we live in can also sometimes be not normal.”
As well as Hipster, the Brooklyn-based agency also created an “International America Road Trip” which has one visiting cities which have an international feel about them.
Activities include hunting for UFOs in Dublin, Texas; celebrating the New Year with a 12ft, 150lb bologna suspended from a fire truck ladder in Lebanon, Pennsylvania; and searching for shark teeth in Venice, Florida – the Shark’ Tooth Capital of the World”.
The third infographic “Vacation like a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _” has all sorts filling the blanks - such as ‘polar bear’, ‘space nerd’, ‘tree hugger’ and ‘zombiephile’.
