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With Twisted Valentine's Day Stunt, Agency Helps Lovelorn Put Ex-Lovers Through A Paper Shredder And Get Pissed On By Kittens

Well, this is timely and right up the snarky-ass alley of Adland. In celebration of the fact that Valentine's Day really isn't the most awesome day of the year for some, McKinney is out with #ShredYourEx, an ingenious hack that allows anyone to literally (as in physically) shred a picture of a less-than-loved-one simply by posting it to Twitter or Instagram.

Here's how it works. On Twitter or Instagram, anyone can tweet or post to @ShredYouEx with the hashtag #ShredYourEx and auto-magically, they can see that very picture get shredded online -- via a Ustream feed by an actual shredder, in front of a fireplace. Awesomely twisted!

The effort is part of the agency's "McKinney Ten Percent," a program that encourages employees to spend 10% of their time on creative endeavors outside the usual realm of advertising.

Apparently, the seemingly simple task of getting a Twitter or Instagram image to print took quite a bit of effort. In order to take the necessary Instagram and Twitter information from the Web directly to a printer, the agency hacked the printer API. 

The agency's technical wizardry checks Instagram and Twitter user information for three things: mention of the @ShredYourEx handle, the hashtag #ShredYourEx and one image. If a post contains all three, ShredYourEx sends the image directly to the printer. And the agency's hack made sure not to accept the same user’s information more than once in 24 hours, ensuring that one person cannot print multiple images each day.

McKinney is promoting the effort with two videos that zero in on some of the decidedly negative factors present in some relationships. You can watch them here and here

That second video makes note of the fact that the agency is putting all those shredded exes to good use. When the stunt concludes on midnight, Valentine's Day, the agency -- in a brilliantly sadistic move -- will donate all the shredded paper to the animal shelter Paws4ever to be used as litter for recently spayed and neutered kittens. That's right. Not only can you shred your ex -- you can have them pissed on by kitties!

So if you've got a chip on your shoulder over someone; a past or current lover, a husband, a wife, your mother...anyone, then this is your thing! This is what you need to get out your aggression, to sweep aside the annoyances of Valentine's Day so that you can enjoy the day like any other and not have to be bogged down with all of its weighty baggage

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2 comments about "With Twisted Valentine's Day Stunt, Agency Helps Lovelorn Put Ex-Lovers Through A Paper Shredder And Get Pissed On By Kittens".
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  1. Ruth Ayres from Harte-Hanks, February 12, 2015 at 8:18 a.m.

    I love this whole thing

  2. James Bradley from Retail Media Company, February 12, 2015 at 10:55 a.m.

    Printing directly to the shredder provides the most secure handling of your physical documents.

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