Let’s get this out of the way: Brunch is, for all intents and purposes, breakfast. You might order a frittata that has a vegetable or two and could plausibly be considered lunch but, for the most part, you’re going to end up ordering some version of pancakes/waffles/eggs/breakfast meat.
So why are you waiting in line for an hour to be jammed into tiny tables, squished together to watch people Instagram their sometimes criminally expensive, hard-to-pronounce food and overhear in-depth analysis of a community theater’s production of Waiting for Godot? You don’t have to do this!
WorkInProgress (some former CP+Bers who launched the agency in 2016) pokes a little fun at the Cult of Brunch with a campaign for Village Inn (VI) which, at least based on past experience, was our preferred hangover cure in college at the University of Denver.
The brand sent a van (which is kinda creepy, but at least it wasn’t an 80s Econoline) to some of Denver’s most popular brunch spots to save people from the long, sometimes awkward, lines and take them to Village Inn. Roy, a “breakfast enthusiast” and the driver of the tricked out rig, is a mildly hirsute and friendly fella who doles out fresh, hot coffee for the ride to the restaurant.
The activation video really captures the essence of the thing—this anti-brunch crusade—and it also includes a few paid ads to drive the point home.
While the ads are pleasant and poke fun at the meal jammed between breakfast and lunch, 30-seconds isn’t a hell of a lot of time to explore the absurdity of the brunch world (there are French Toast, eggs and bacon to sell, after all) to the degree it probably deserves.
“Will we stop everyone from going to brunch? No,” said Matt Talbot, partner and creative at WorkInProgress. “But if we can save even one person from a 2-hour wait and $30 avocado toast, it’s all been worth it.”