"Humorous and fun with an impressive use of video that incorporates good user interaction. It serves the brand well without being heavy-handed." —juror Edward J. Heinz Jr.
"NOLAF made me laugh." —juror Jason Ring
Overview: "Fun is contagious and therefore a disease." That's the NOLAF (National Organization for Legislation Against Fun) motto. The special interest group is dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of fun and launched this educational site, along with a series of viral videos, for Frito Lay's "Free the Fun" campaign for Tostitos. The fictitious organization—a branded experience for the sole purpose of delivering laughs—educates visitors about why Tostitos chips and dips are great snacks. To get the word out about the site, 30 short viral videos, from the site content, were pushed out to video-sharing sites, social network influencers and blog networks.
• Most visitors spend more than six minutes on the site.
• The video campaign to get the word out resulted in over 3.2 million YouTube views in just over a month.
• The full-screen HD site scales up to 30-inch monitors or 2560 x 1600 resolution.
Comments by Todd Crisman:
What was the most challenging aspect of the project? "After finding a cast that was roughly my size so I could make off with the wardrobe after we were done shooting, the toughest part was coherently lacing together 43 minutes of video content. We got into this groove where we'd sell some concepts and then stay up all night making them funnier and then we'd have to resell them the following morning. We did that for a solid week during pre-production."
How did this project compare with others you've worked on in the past? "For one thing, it was more fun. There's nothing like people trying to out-weird each other in the back of a crappy van on the set with the director, writer, art director and cast. Without that mojo we'd never have come up with the anger melon, pizza shingles or menthol catheter. NOLAF was the most intensely collaborative interactive project we've ever tackled and Mekanism was really awesome. By the time we were done shooting, we all felt like we needed to get a big beach apartment to eat nothing but anger melons all day."
