Are you misunderstood? Does nobody know how ANGRY you are? Well, now’s your chance to let it all out. To promote the new Burnout Dominator game EA have teamed up with Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam to produce a new interactive website based around a made-up martial art movement called Kah Ra Shin. The movement allegedly started in Tibet in the 19th Century when an angry peasant boy in a fit of rage snapped a baby goat’s leg and found it calmed his nerves…(Maybe Rizlas weren't around in those days). As such, Kah Rah Shin calls for practitioners to gain ‘inner peace through outer violence’ and shows how to use this very special art in everyday stressful situations at home, in traffic jams, and – we suspect most importantly – in the office.
The ancient Tibetan art of Zen-like meditation couldn’t be further removed from the mindless car carnage featured in EA’s Burnout game but fret not! There is a connection, albeit a rather tenuous one. Copywriter Mike Farr explains: ‘What everyone loves about EA’s Burnout™ Dominator is its pure and unabashed celebration of destruction. The truth is, it feels good to smash into things at high speed. And after a stressful day at the office there is something even pleasantly cathartic about it. The worldwide global phenomenon, Kah Ra Shin, and its mantra, ‘Inner Peace Through Outer Violence’ was born from this insight.’
The site houses various interactive features and videos including the ‘upload your scream section’ where users can submit videos of themselves screaming their heads off at the camera. The short clips are presented on a big scrolling video montage which makes for some entertaining viewing.If you are fed up with the manic screaming (probably after a minute or so) you can then also see some video testimonies from people explaining how Kah Ra Shin helped them in life. They’re all bonkers, of course. There are also tutorial videos teaching students ‘The way of the scream’, and how to incorporate this bizarre philosophy into your daily lives. One of them, not surprisingly, is to play Burnout Dominator.
The campaign has been backed up with viral marketing linking people to the site via banners, emails, and print based adverts featuring a car crumpled up against the wall/magazine page, and is the first online campaign from Wieden since they poached digital whizkid Joakim Borgstrom from hot Spanish shop Double Yoo.
We like it! Now come here, I need to vent….
http://www.kahrashin.com/
