This week's content highlight of the week features an unusual double bill. After a slow start to the year, a bumper crop of great content seems to be on the way, and this week we like two things. Yes, two. I know, we're getting soft. Anyway, we thought 'let's go wild with a double bill'. We're true mavericks here at Red Bee.
Both ideas are far from predictable approaches to communication, and are both carry some disturbing scenes at the climax. But don't worry, both are funny, make their points very well and are immensely shareable.
Part One – Denham Psycho
The first highlight features a clever little skit that's been spreading like wildfire over the past week or so. Conceived and produced by Amsterdam agency Flickering Wall on behalf of Denham the Jeanmaker, it's a short film tribute to cult classic American Psycho. It works off the insight that Denham's Shoreditch-bothering target customer is hopelessly competitive when it comes to the acute specifics of skinny jeaned, top-buttoned, moustachioed man-fashion. But it also recognises the audience's sense of self-awareness, and trusts them to laugh at themselves, along with the rest of us mere mortals of fashion. No film scene that I've ever watched better encapsulates the ridiculous depths to which competitive connoisseurship can stoop than the famous business card comparison scene from American Psycho, and this pastiche does it justice by getting the details of cut and pacing just right. The only drawback is the acting. It seems that Denham may have recruited actual Dalston Dandies as the cast, rather than proper performers, and unfortunately that shows towards the end. But it's certainly raising awareness of Denham, and giving them an appealing brand personality too. A job well done.
Part Two – Set Yourself Free
Anyone with a passing knowledge of Brett Easton Ellis novels or Christian Bale films can see where the hipsters of Denham are heading, but we defy anybody to anticipate the direction in which Australian writers Henry Inglis and Aaron McCann take the beautiful young people in this short film. One minute, it's all Coke-adworld with saccharine montages of beautiful young friends having the time of their lives. Then it's… different. We don't want to spoil it for you, so we won't tell you much more apart from a bit about this film's message in the broadest of terms: it's about education. Whether you interpret that as the importance of literacy or simple school attendance, well, that's down to you, because the whole thing is so bizarre that meaning and humour can be drawn from a range of interpretations. Either way, it's doing its job because only a few days after release it has 4 million views and plenty of PR coverage. Our only regret here is that the characters from Denham's campaign were not invited to join the finale for this one.