Gaming browser, Opera GX, asked Waste Creative to create a “disruptive, edgy, impactful campaign to boost brand awareness”. Ask and you will receive. The agency gave it comedian and actor, Eric Andre, in a horror campaign, Bury Boring – a rallying cry that takes on boring browsing behaviour and rival brands.
The campaign leads with a surreal, chaos-infused, horror-inspired two-minute hero film, directed by Dan French, in which Andre confronts people using “boring” browsers, interrupting their boring browsing behaviour and throwing devices in his body bag.
In one vignette, an older woman is trying to load a website called Dating for the Dying. Andre rushes in with an axe, smashes the woman’s computer, stuffs it in his body bag, and screams, “You’re wasting time you don’t have!”
The spot features unscripted moments captured on set, reflecting Andre’s comedic talents and surreal sense of humour.
The agency identified Andre, best known as the creator, host, and co-writer of the surreal Adult Swim comedy series, The Eric Andre Show, as the perfect talent to bring the idea to life and represent the Opera GX brand’s fun and irreverent tone of voice. Andre has a significant following on social media, with 2.7m followers on Instagram alone.
The teaser spot launched at Halloween:
The campaign is running across social channels YouTube, Twitter and TikTok, supported by influencer activity.
Auryn Hiscock, creative lead, gaming at Opera GX, commented, “Pre-installed browsers are the worst. They’re clunky, un-customizable resource hogs that come already loaded on everyone’s desktops and devices. Basically, the antithesis of Opera GX. Hopefully this campaign, by the talented folks over at Waste, reminds you of that, and inspires you to question whether the browser you’re using is actually good or just some BS your system tray inherited. Our money is on the latter.”
Benny Bentham, creative director, Waste Creative, added, “The Bury Boring concept set out to take an axe to boring browsers with a fun, insistently memorable campaign that grabs the attention of mainstream gamers and shows Opera GX to be the antidote to boring browser behaviour. It was written especially for Eric Andre – he was our first and only choice – so putting his anarchic, chaotic and surreal personality front and centre gave him room to add his own special dose of comedy chaos to each scene. The final result was, as you might expect, anything but boring, and we’re very proud of the campaign as a whole.”
Credits:
Creative Agency: Waste Creative
Creative Director: Benny Bentham
Creative Lead: Darren Wanklyn
Creative: Jamie Wallace
Senior Designer: Ell Jeffrey
Senior Strategist: Jana Beck
Strategy Director: Christian Perrins
Head of Production: James Trimming
Lead Producer: Ivan Sebastian
Senior Project Manager: Jon Hudson
Account Manager: Lily De Meester
Account Director: Annie Bell-Carfrae
Client: Opera GX
Product Marketing Director: Maciek Wójcik
Creative Lead: Auryn Hiscock
