Guitar Center is losing customers to e-commerce competitors. They’re also losing them for a deeper reason — people are giving up on their musical dreams. However, they still idolize pop stars – the people who never gave up.
It’s up to us to convince everyone to stay true to themselves. To keep the drive to express themselves through music and realize that dream.
We launch with an OOH campaign portraying legendary musicians living out mundane lives. A parade of Dickensian ghosts showing could-have-been timelines.
We launch with an OOH campaign showing our legends in less-than-legendary circumstances.
We feature aspects of their iconography realized in ordinary lives, hinting at the artistic expression inside of them that no one would ever know.
Johnny Cash selling black suits, Mariah Carey working in a Christmas shop, Flavor Flav running an antique clock shop.
These snapshots of superstars living horrifically mundane day-to-day lives will inspire us all to hang on to ourselves – not just to keep making music, but to keep pushing until we become the next wave of undisputed legends.
Unproduced spec project
Art + Copy: Casey Burns + Todd Konrad
Stunt: Undercover Celebrity Retailers
Celebrity musicians will pose as everyday retail workers in chain stores across America. When fans recognize and engage with them, the stars will stay in character and act as if they gave up on music.
They converse and engage with fans and ask if they play music. Eventually they hand the fans gift cards for Guitar Center and point them in the direction of the nearest location to shop for something meaningful.
Fan documentation causes a huge stir online, translating to invaluable user-generated content and a surge in sales at Guitar Center.
Extension: Celebrity Interview Vinyl LPs and Spotify Albums
We will record a series of excruciatingly boring but ultimately funny spoken word interview albums with with our less-than-legendary variants. There is no music to be found on any of these recordings.
Imagine a Johnny Cash discussing the finer details of tailoring and why he personally enjoys working on black suits.
Ponder a Flavor Flav talking about the differences between wind-up alarm clocks versus battery-powered ones.
Sample quotes:
“I have nothing but regrets. Nothing.” – Johnny Cash
“I get 10 PTO days if I go full time.” – Mariah Carey
“Check out this clock, it has these little pine cones for weights.” – Flavor Flav
We will press and hype a limited number of vinyl LPs and place them in record stores and other record retailers (Urban Outfitters and the like) to drive music lovers to Guitar Center. Spotify will feature the albums so that casual digital listeners can bathe in the boredom of a life without music.
