When only an inflatable elephant will do.

 
Meet Tyler. The Talk elephant.
 
Tyler is a mascot for a campaign that I am working on to help flush the elephant out of the room. The project is meant to get people talking about anything. About faith, habits, names, travel, celebration, etc.
 
And, so today I got the opportunity to help set up Tyler with Jamison Merrill, an eccentric and aspiring planner and copywriter who is one of the account leads on the campaign. I say “help,” but, in reality I just sat back with my Flip cam and watched the silliness unfold.
 
Each day, for five days leading up to our festival, we’ve been inflating Tyler and puting him in a different location on the University of Oregon campus. He’s gotten a lot of attention over the week and had drummed up serious enthusiasm for Talk Fest 2010. I can’t believe it, but people are genuinely stoked about our inflatable pachyderm friend. Today, while setting him up, I could see people walk by and smile. Those who would walk by on the phone or with someone would instantly begin talking — wow, it works.
 
It’s days like this that make me excited to be in a field where this sort of thing just happens. I love the production of ideas. I love waking up early or staying up late to work on random projects … like buying a $500 inflatable and installing him all over a college campus. I can only imagine what sort of work I will be doing when my client’s budget is counted in the millions. Real elephants on campus? One can dream.