The agency @veryseriousltd which are definitely not Alex Morris and Oliver Finel, have taken creative agency social media accounts hostage! Specifically, TikTok accounts. They have even sent out a ransom note to the poor agencies, among them Mother London and BBDO.
The message reads in part:
"WE SERIOUS PARTNERS, HAVE TAKEN THE TIKTOK ACCOUNTS OF THE BEST AGENCIES IN THE LAND HOSTAGE.
FOR TOO LONG, THEY HAVE SLEPT ON TIKTOK AS A CHANNEL, SAYING 'IT'S JUST FOR TWERKING TEENS' AND 'LET'S ADD IT TO THE END OF THE BRIEF IF THERE'S ANY BUDGET LEFT"
Along with this they have sent out a hostage video to each agency involved, and campaigmag too. Their demands? A placement. Someone please get these kids in on a placement!
Now, the ad industry may be a little pre-occupied with hostage-taking as we've seen this before in the way of domain name hijacking, stolen and dismembered art cows, art for ransom and even kidnapped lecturers in Cannes. I do believe a Israeli advertising team managed to steal some ad agencies' social media channel as well, but it's all a blur at this point.
🚨 WE’VE TAKEN THE TIKTOK ACCOUNTS OF THE UK’S BEST AGENCIES HOSTAGE 🚨
WE HAVE THE LOGINS. WE HAVE THE PASSWORDS.
GIVE US A PLACEMENT & WE’LL RETURN THE ACCOUNT. UNHARMED.
CONTACT US AS https://t.co/EN9MWHsPyg#TikTokHostages pic.twitter.com/YDwmHCPRWN— VERY SERIOUS (@veryseriousltd) November 10, 2020
Now, each execution is different even if the core idea of the stunt is hostage-taking, so I'm actually very curious to see what the teams will come up with on these channels.
Their demands are that they get a placement somewhere, and this stunt is getting them enough attention so that this may happen.
But now that they have the channels, I see these as auditioning channels where they can show us ideas suitable for clients at the respective agencies whose channels they are holding for ransom. If BBDO is all about the work the work the work, and not the twerk, what should BBDO put in their TikTok channel?