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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I love this whole thing
Printing directly to the shredder provides the most secure handling of your physical documents.