GLUE SOCIETY NEW YORK HIT MTV WITH AXE: THE GAMEKILLERS 60 MINUTE UN-BRANDED FILM DEBUTS ON US NETWORK

Following the opening of Glue Society's New York office last year, the creative collective have produced their first major US work.
In collaboration with Bartle Bogle Hegarty, The Glue Society have co-written and directed a one hour television show for youth brand Axe (known in Australia as Lynx) as well as directing a campaign of four themed TV commercials.
The campaign is for Axe Dry, working to the line 'Keep Your Cool' and introduces the public to THE GAMEKILLERS - people whose mission in life is to stop guys from succeeding with girls. They appear from the shadows, stepping in just when the guy thinks he's getting somewhere causing him to lose his cool, and blow his chances with the one he desires.
There is a cast of character archetypes such as the 'The One Upper' who has done everything you have done, one bigger or one better. Or the 'British Accent Guy' or swoops in, voice first and makes the locals sound like uncultured hicks. Or the 'Mother Hen' who gathers up her girlfriends at nine-thirty sharp - just when the guy thinks he's getting somewhere. And the dreaded 'Man with Dog' who uses his four legged accessory to pick up girls. There are in total fourteen of these gamekillers - which can be seen on the website, gamekillers.com.
The concept for the campaign originated from BBH New York and the TV show was developed in conjunction with film production company, @radical.media and partner MTV, who aired the show for the first time last week. The Glue Society was hired as the director and co-writer of the one hour television show which is part-fiction and part-reality show.
Says NYC based Glue Society partner, Gary Freedman: "What really appealed to me about this idea, was the chance to create a fictional world and a sort of mythology around the Gamekillers - really evolve great comic characters. And then see what happened when you place them in the real world on an unsuspecting guy who's just trying to get it on with a girl. I like the clash of the two worlds - I don't think I've seen anything that is a hybrid like that. The end result feels a bit like a film, and then suddenly you see those characters interacting in real life - it is very bizarre."
The product, Axe Dry does not actually ever appear in the TV show, but there are a series of bumpers around the programme from Axe Dry and following the show's launch, there are a series of commercials (also directed by The Glue Society) featuring the cast of characters and communicating the message, to 'Keep Your Cool', in the face of The Gamekillers.
"This is not the first 'long format' thing ever produced (The Glue Society also directed the Burger King Chicken Fight last year with Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami) - but I would say that it is the most ambitious to date, that I know of. This is a heavily narrative driven one hour TV show with real production values - we shot for twentysomething days so there was a fairly major commitment behind it".
"I think the difference here is that this is in no way the after-thought to the 30 second TV commercials. The TV show is what the campaign is built around - and I think it will set a new bench mark for the whole 'branded content' area, which has been talked to death, especially here in the US. But I think this campaign really does walk the talk. For The Glue Society, it's what we have been aiming to do here and I'm pleased we were able to do it with a good agency like BBH."