Quique the Head
Issue 13 | December 2009
Agency
Shackleton, Barcelona
Creative Team
Creative Director: Enric Nel-Lo, Creative Director: Pipo Virgos, Creative Director: Paco Badia, Art Director: Jaume Leis, Diesel Creative Team Leader: Wilbert Das
Production Team
Audiovisual Production: Manuele Zamora, Agency Producer: Cristina Cortizas, Digital Producer: Joaquin Garcia Morato
Other Credits
Account Manager: Oriol Boira, Technology Manager: Marc Sallent, Interactive Manager: Dani Rocasalbas,
Date
September 2009
Background
Diesel wanted an international campaign to promote their brand of motorcycle helmets, Mowie. Naturally they were looking for maximum impact with minimum budget.
Idea
The creative treatment centres on a very bizarre spokesperson: a bodiless man. This is Enrique Carboni Junior, a.k.a. ‘Quique the Head’, a 27 year-old Argentine born with an extremely rare condition: a head but no body.
The different pieces created by Shackleton highlight Diesel’s role in protecting Quique’s most vital organ, his head, and their help for him in his search for a body.
The central part of the campaign is a short video documentary, purportedly shot by an Australian TV network. This narrates Quique’s story from his days as a young head through to him today.
The film describes the daily challenges he faces as an architect in Madrid with a possessive and jealous girlfriend, Isabel. Each situation he finds himself in is, of course, a demonstration of how important his Mowie helmet is to him.
On the website, visitors can see the movie and can upload a photo onto which they can attach Quique’s head.
There is also a downloadable ‘Tongue Trainer’ iPhone app.
Results
In the three weeks since launch, the website has had some 800,000 views. There have been 246 blog posts already.
Our Thoughts
Follow the creative mind for a moment. It is asked to have an idea to promote a motorcycle helmet. Hmmm. Showing motorcycles and smashing up melons? Too easy. How about the ‘life of a head’? Perfect. Of course, life as a head will be difficult in some respects and there is little dignity in being carted around by your girlfriend in a shopping bag. But, on the other hand, there must be advantages. Tongue control, for example. And yes, there is a scene in the movie in which Quique’s tongue gets put to good use.
This campaign is so completely off the wall, only a brand manager at Diesel could ever have bought it, because only Diesel seem to know that off the wall is a successful sales strategy.