Wheat Thins nabs ad hater in latest ambush

When Wheat Thins went after people last summer who were talking smack about the brand on Twitter, there was understandable skepticism about whether the whole thing was a set-up. The ad, done by The Escape Pod, was the real deal, agency founder Vinny Warren insisted. That led to the inspiration for this next installment, a 30-second spot in which the Wheat Thins crew doorsteps Derek Tzeo, a Portland, Ore., dude who dared to question the authenticity of the first spot, calling it "uber-fake." He's left with a pallet of Wheat Thins that are, in fact, "uber-real." As recently departed Euro RSCG creative chief Stefan Postaer notes on his blog, the candid-camera bit isn't very new, but the melding of social media with broadcast spots is certainly a fertile area to explore. Over on YouTube, the top comment is from another doubter, with the next being from Derek himself insisting he's real.

Filed under Escape Pod, Food and drink, Morrissey, Wheat Thins
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OfficeMax launching kids out into orbit, too

Space travel is shaping up as a popular back-to-school theme this year. First, we had the BBC spot (advertising a documentary series about schools) in which a mother sends her little girl floating off in an astronaut suit, as David Bowie's "Space Oddity" plays. (Hopefully she'll fare better than Major Tom.) Now, we get this OfficeMax spot, in which a mom daydreams about her daughter becoming an astronaut—a vision that convinces her to invest in the kid today by buying her a new computer. The space theme is an salient one for parents at this time of year, and not just because of its aspirational nature. As the long summer winds down, the countdown is on to finally launch the runts back into someone else's universe. This spot was done in-house. A second spot, "Goodbye," created by The Escape Pod in Chicago, is posted after the jump.

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Filed under Escape Pod, Nudd, Office supplies, OfficeMax
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Talk about Wheat Thins, and they'll find you

Watch what you say about brands. They've gotten the listening memo, and some are even taking action. Following in the harassing footsteps of Domino's, Wheat Thins is now going after tweeters. The Escape Pod created the video below, showing a Prize-Patrol-type van cruising the streets to find people who've tweeted about the brand. For this exercise, they're only seeking those who've said nice things, like Tabitha Hancock, who tweeted, "AAAHHHH Im outta wheat thins... Mi life is officially over!" That missive earned her a visit from the Crunch Patrol armed with a boatload of Wheat Thins. (Actually, Tabitha's story is more complicated than that. The Wheat Thins post was her very first tweet, which seems shady, and her page looks different in the video than online. But The Escape Pod explains all the discrepancies at length here.) Agency founder Vinny Warren also blogs that the shop found its victims with the help of their Facebook friends. His sensible warning: "Don't trust your loved ones!" Meanwhile, if Wheat Thins gets around to harassing the haters, they may come after us first.

Filed under Escape Pod, Food and drink, Morrissey, Twitter, Wheat Thins
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