A tech guru's 'moderner' world is a minimalist, pointless nightmare
Damian Young plays smug visionary founder Future Strong in spoof for tech solutions firm CDW
Editor's Pick
Cutting-edge technology tends to promise more than it can deliver. Remember Google Glass and the Segway?
But Future Strong, the enigmatic, inspirational founder of tech conglomerate Modern Modernization Today doesn’t make trendy gear. He facilitates the creation of modernity for its own sake. Don’t ask whether a desk or a vehicle or a neuro-conductive implant is useful, or necessary, or practical. Ask whether it’s new and different. Is it sleek and cold? Translucent? Hands-free?
Strong meanders through his stark-white headquarters unspooling a buzzword-heavy pitch for products like Sit Square, a spartan platform for squatting while working that takes the open office format to its devastating conclusion, priced at a competitive $25,599. For under $3,000, Wifi Booster Crystals metaphysically enhance network solutions.
By the time Strong introduces the “Data Orb” and the “Office Goat,” the parody is in full effect. Because of course this is a spoof ad, created by Ogilvy Chicago for CDW, an actual tech solutions firm whose long-running “People Who Get IT” campaign pokes fun at hype and hyperbole in the sector.
Strong is played with spot-on smugness by Damian Young (“House of Cards,” “Ozark” and “Californication”), who channels an over-the-top combination of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. The unbranded, three-minute spot is directed by Jess Coulter via O Positive and is running on TV, radio, digital and social placements.
Credits
- Date
- Dec 06, 2019
- Client :
- CDW
- Agency :
- Ogilvy & Mather-Chicago
- Executive Creative Director :
- Dave Loew
- Creative Director :
- Pat Seidel
- Creative Director :
- Chris Rose
- Creative Director :
- Joe Ondrla
- Executive Producer :
- Mike Diedrich
- Sr. Business Affairs Manager :
- Nathalynne McGinnis
- Business Affairs Manager :
- Jim Moore
- Group Managing Director :
- Cathy Francque
- Account Director Supervisor :
- Charles Brandl
- Account Manager Supervisor :
- Whitney Burton
- Account Executive :
- Yulia Linnik
- Senior VP Strategy & Marketing :
- Mark Chong
- VP Marketing :
- Jim Mitchell
- Director, Brand & Sponsorships: Dean Lamb :
- Dean Lamb
- Manager Brand & Sponsorships :
- Sara Valko
- Production Company :
- O Positive
- Director :
- Jess Coulter
- Executive Producer :
- Ralph Laucella
- Executive Producer :
- Marc Grill
- Producer :
- Devon Clark
- Director of Photography :
- Eric Steelberg
- Editorial Company :
- Optimus
- Editor :
- Matt Glover
- Executive Producer :
- Tracy Spera
- Music :
- Human Music
- Composer :
- Justin Hori
- Executive Producer :
- James Wells
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