“Let’s put on a show in the barn” has a much different meaning at a large direct-marketing company.
Ever since hearing about the fledgling charity “Mustaches for Kids”, in which participants collect pledges to grow ugly-ass mustaches, I’ve been hooked. Mustaches are grown for six weeks, with regular checkpoints and rules — no handlebar mustaches, pencil-thin mustaches: in short, no “ironic” mustaches at all. We’re talking volunteer firefighter mustaches, assistant basketball coach mustaches. God help us all, even Freddie Mercury mustaches. The money goes to the Make-A-Wish foundation, so when someone asks you about the horrible caterpillar on your lip, you can fix them with a steely gaze and say, “Hey! It’s FOR THE KIDS!”

I’ve been fortunate enough to get some colleagues at [My employer] involved — Account-manager-pprodigy Gerard Viau, master copywriter Doug Bost (you can hear him talking on the Crown Royal homepage), and the inimitable Kyle Smith, world-record holder for multi-level knife sales in college. With their help, the project is blooming from silly idea stage into a full-blown multi-channel direct response campaign, complete with business response cards and corporate involvement.

I plan on putting a site together over the weekend and will post the URL: meanwhile, you can see some pictures I gathered for inspiration here. Caution: Yanni photos!