Oasis (Run Cactus Kid Run)
‘Run Cactus Kid Run’ is an advertising campaign for Oasis (drink). The campaign launched in June 2008 in the UK.
The campaign tells the story of Cactus Kid – a misunderstood anti-hero whose only crime is not liking water, and loving ‘Oasis’!
The campaign includes three 30 second advertisements entitled 'Pregnant' 1, 'Diner' 2 and 'Motel'3 and also comprises series of web content and social networking elements.
Campaign elements
Television advertising
'Cactus Kid's character and the Run Cactus Kid Run campaign were created by advertising agency Mother.
Shot in Mexico in the style of a classic American road movie, the TV ads are reminiscent of films including Rebel Without a Cause, True Romance, Badlands and Thelma & Louise. The 'Cactus Kid' was brought to life by the Oscar winning makeup artists at Stan Winston Studios in LA (Predator, Alien, Terminator and Jurassic Park).
Outdoor advertising
The outdoor campaign featured 96 sheets and phone kiosk banners.
Online
A series of websites and social network elements were created to expand on the story of Cactus Kid and Cactus Girl.
The online content was created by digital advertising agency, glue London.
Mothers Against Cactus Kid (M.A.C.K.)
Tells the story of Cactus Girl’s mother Merrill Dawning, who believes her daughter was kidnapped by Cactus Kid and in protest founded the organisation Mothers Against Cactus Kid online.
Merrill has set the cops on Cactus Kid in order to rescue her daughter. www.mothersagainstcactuskid.com
The Hunt For Cactus Kid
The hunt for Cactus Kid is headed by a rogue US sheriff who is hot on the trail of the duo. He has enlisted the help of the online public to help him find Cactus Kid in a Google Maps based Mechanical Turk application with a $2000 reward. www.findcactuskid.com
Characters
Cactus Kid
Cactus Kid is inspired by James Dean and Steve McQueen. He appears to be part man and part cactus. His mysterious past is unclear and he never speaks a word. He has run away with his pregnant girlfriend Cactus Girl and is now living on the lamb.
Cactus Kid “sightings” have been posted on Youtube 4 and Flickr 5.
Cactus Girl
Cactus Girl is a small town, 20 year old girl who was just waiting for her life to begin. Then she met Cactus Kid. Cactus Kid who like her doesn’t like water. She becomes pregnant with the child of cactus kid and the two have run away to start a new life together. But freedom isn’t in store for the ill-fated couple.
Cactus girl vents her frustrations with her hometown, living with her parents, and being on the run on her Myspace video blog (6)
Music
The Cactus Kid soundtrack was originally composed in 1536 by Hans Neusiedler. It has been arranged, interpreted and re-scored many times since then, most notably by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman for the 1973 film "Badlands" by Terrence Malick starring Martin Sheen.
More recently, Quentin Tarantino and Tony Scott paid homage to it in the 1993 film "True Romance" with a version by Hans Zimmer.
The arrangement made specifically for the Cactus Kid campaign was recorded by Tom Hodge and Arnold Hattingh of Boosey and Hawkes.
The Campaign Ending
On posters, phone boxes and the internet, the public were invited to visit www.runcactuskidrun.com and vote on how they wanted the Cactus Kid story to end. There were three endings to choose from: Happy, Sad and Twist, and viewers weren't able to watch them in their entirety until the winner was announced on the 22nd September. Twist won, with 43% of the vote, and the endings were also posted on YouTube.
Links
- www.runcactuskidrun.com
- www.myspace.com/cactusgirl87
- www.flickr.com/runcactuskidrun
- www.youtube.com/runcactuskidrun
- www.mothersagainstcactuskid.com
- www.elpedregalrestaurant.com
- www.theamericasmotel.com
- www.findcactuskid.com
References
- The Guardian Newspaper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2008/jul/02/oasis - Brand Republic:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Advertising/News/831055/Oasis-cactus-kid-ad-hit-complaints-teenage-pregnancy/ - The Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/comment/claire-beale/beales-best-in-show-oasis-mother-861090.htm - The Inspiration Room:
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/run-cactus-kid-run-online/