Dupont Circle. Two people. Two products. One hour. Co-branding.

Nan O'fith

We began our journey in CVS looking for inspiration. The first product we came across was Spam. Tempted as we were by the label which said it was "Crazy Tasty!", we decided to keep looking as see if there was anything even better. In an effort to find a product that might make people uncomfortable, we headed for the personal hygiene aisle where the conversation went something like this:

FZ!: What about wart remover? It always seemed like that would be an embarrassing thing to buy.

Nano5th: Oooh. Yeah. But what to pair it with? [pause] Do you see anything with Kermit on it?

And thus we found ourselves in the Valentine novelty toy section since, apparently, frogs are the latest craze in Valentine gifts. We selected an innocuous--perhaps even cute--stuffed frog that made hideous kissing noises and we were on our way.

Photo schedule and quotes of note:

@ 7:53 - People on a street corner looking for a bar
8:02 - Eve, hairstylist on break
8:14 - Guy coming out of a movie theater - seemed confused, possibly chemically altered, but plenty friendly
8:20 - Valets on break (one egged on by co-workers) - "I'm not going to smile for this one."
8:23 - Guy with a motor scooter who seemed cool, but refused the second image - "I don't know about that one."
8:30 - Street panties. The horror.
8:32 - Guys with friends, egging them on - "Does this apply to genital warts, too?"
8:33 - Dazed-looking businessman with crooked tie
8:41 - Remarkably agreeable lady waiting for the bus. She gets bonus points for being really excited and happy about it all
8:50 - Hurried and mildly suspicious woman from the metro - "You're pushing your luck. I'm drawing the line at the wart stick.

FZ!

To me, the real core of this task is catching people unawares with the second product, and seeing how they respond to the new situation. To best capture this, we looked for products that would give us the best shift from "cute" to "embarrassing." From our previous forays for random tasking materials, we had learned that there's always inspiration to be found in the aisles of the local CVS, so we searched for our implements of co-branding. And so, we chose our products: a saccharine-cute "kiss me" frog (made by "LOVE", apparently CVS's valentine-toy brand) and the mildly embarrassing Wart STICK (made by Pedifex).

While the common difficulty with this task would seem to be getting people to agree to the second, more questionable picture, walking around Dupont Circle in DC on a Wednesday night, we quickly learned the true difficulty behind this task - approaching people in a way that doesn't make them think we're going to ask them for money, harass them for political issues, or so forth. For those who have not graced our streets, DC inspires cynicism in much the same way that being submerged in a tank of water inspires drowning. Our work was cut out for us.

We quickly learned a few techniques for this:

* People who are waiting in one spot may be willing to talk, but people who are just ending a satisfying experience are better - people coming out of restaurants or theaters are satisfied and generally willing to talk to friendly faces.

* Immediately saying we weren't asking for money only inspires more suspicion, much like starting a conversation by saying, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you..." Instead, it's much better to present a reasonable story (carefully worded for mostly-truthfulness) about how we're students, working on a branding project for an advertising class. The fact that Nan actually is a student at a local university helped immensely, if only because I would have felt bad to tell a lie that was entirely untrue.

* Groups of people are great for approaching. One person will inevitably be egged on by their friends, leading to a better chance of both pictures. Furthermore, where individuals may be intimidated by being approached by two strangers, a group of people is much more comfortable with us.

Even so, about two-thirds of the people approached wouldn't agree to let us take their picture, or didn't even want to talk at all. But of those that did agree to the first picture, more than half agreed to the second picture - although never without some laughing, mild embarrassment, and/or general uncertainty. A lot of this success can be chalked up to Nan's wonderful job of explaining that the wart stick was "just in case the frog doesn't turn into a prince."

Such is the sort of cheesy excuse upon which all great advertising is founded.