Office of Baby, the New York agency founded by GS&P veteran Paul Caiozzo and partners, has launched the first-ever global campaign for Etsy, the online marketplace where you can buy everything from a taxidermy beetle playing the banjo to cat hair jewelry to elephant boxers (complete with strategically placed trunk).
While the Brooklyn-based company has expanded its site to include 54 million members and 35 million products, it has yet to launch a comprehensive ad campaign. That’s where Office of Baby and “Difference Makes Us” comes in. The work focuses on two types of everyday items — mugs and bedside tables — to demonstrate how seemingly minute differences in personal taste help define who we are.
Both “Mugs” and “Table” were shot on iPhones, allowing Etsy sellers to match the vignettes and edit in their own products, and set to music by 90-year old children’s folk singer Ella Jenkins. “Mugs” opens on a woman using a floral design mug to catch rain water from a leaky roof, before showing a woman grabbing the last mug in the office break room (which happens to say “Best Dad Ever”) before her coworker walks in. Other mugs in the spot include a “Big Hug Mug,” rainbow mug, some kind of fantasy-themed mug, the requisite cat mug and a smiley face mug.
“Bedside Tables” applies a similar approach to the furniture staple. The variety of styles of bedside table all say something about their owner, particularly when it’s revealed what’s inside them and how neatly (or not) they are kept.
“When we started collaborating, the idea of Difference Makes Us felt natural, coming right out of the core of what Etsy has always been doing,” Office of Baby creative director Paul Caiozzo said in a statement. “It was an incredible honor to work with Etsy, a company that’s been celebrating creativity and uniqueness since its inception.”
The approach makes a lot of sense for the brand, for which uniqueness and individuality is a distinct selling point. After all, where else can you buy a four-foot long carrot body pillow?
CREDITS
Client: Etsy
Campaign: Difference Makes Us
Agency: Office of Baby
Creative: Nathan Frank, Paul Caiozzo, Kate Wadia
Producer: Chris Patton
Music: Ella Jenkins
Music Label: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Edit: Kathy Gatto
Colorist: Jason Crump
Sound Design + Mix: Geoff Strasser
Animation: Jason Jones