Agency Sends Copywriter Into Wilderness to Live Exclusively on Its Clients’ Brands for 5 Days

But what if you upped the stakes a little and made a social reality show out of it? One man. Five days. 15 brands … and the ravages of nature. 

That's the premise of Portland, Ore.-based Roundhouse's latest promo, "Living Off the Brands," for which copywriter Lee Kimball is spending five days in the wild, using only the brands the agency has on its roster … which incidentally doesn't include any food accounts besides a chocolate brand. (OK, it does have Red Bull, and also Prisoner wine, which we have tried living on with middling success.)

Here's the list of brands from the press release: 

• Adidas

• Faust

• Finex

• LA Galaxy

• Leatherman

• Leupold Optics

• Microsoft

• Reebok

• Redington

• Red Bull

• Rio

• Treehouse Chocolate

• Widmer Brothers

• Yeti

The promotion punctuates Roundhouse's 15th anniversary. Here's a nice spread of stuff Kimball has at his disposal. Maybe a water or beef jerky brand will join the club out of pity, and they can lower the wares to him like in Hunger Games: 

Kimball was dropped off in Oregon's Lower Crooked River on Monday and is due to wrap his adventure up today. Watch him fish, forage and try making fire across a slew of social networks, where you could also provide feedback and advice: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Periscope, Snapchat (roundhousepdx).

 

I have (finally) made fire! #LivingOffTheBrands

A video posted by Roundhouse (@roundhousepdx) on Jul 19, 2016 at 1:44am PDT

He's even socializing with the locals. 

 

At least I won't be lonely out here as long as I keep meeting new friends like Buxton here. (That's what I named him.) #LivingOffTheBrands

A video posted by Roundhouse (@roundhousepdx) on Jul 18, 2016 at 12:01pm PDT

Valiance-wise, this ranks up there with Le Balene's 125-mile walk to a pitch, using the client's mobile technology. They made it, albeit with horrific blisters; we're rooting for Kimball, too.

It also doesn't escape us that his trip fell at the same time as the Republican National Convention, which is pleasingly ironic: While the Republican party struggles not to sell out to the bombastic wormhole presence of Donald Trump—at the risk of our nation!—Kimball must prove he's the ultimate sell-out, at the risk of light dehydration and heatstroke.

In any case, it's been a lot funner than watching David on Demand, which frankly didn't bring out the best in us.