Ottawa Admen go *POP*

The Ottawa Ad community is really one, big, incestuous family. Many of the people who work for the "competition" are men and women we've worked with in previous lives, and quite a few remain lifelong friends. It's in that spirit that I give you twin Art Directors Daryn Wantuck and Tim Wantuck from The Bytown Group in a living work of pop art:

(Photo by Mike Z.)

Daryn and Tim were recruited, among many other sets of identicals, to appear in the exhibit Pop Life: Living in a Material World at the National Gallery of Canada. According to the "about" page it explores the "complex relationship between contemporary art, marketing and the mass media", starting with Andy Warhol and ending with... well... these guys.

It's a recreation of the 1992 Damien Hirst exhibit at the Cologne Unfair art fair, where the British artist commissioned a set of identical twins named Ingo and Torsten to spend time sitting in front of his trademark spot paintings.

You can't invite ad creatives to be part of an exhibit like that without getting something extra. And so it happened that, after their first sitting in the installation, Daryn and Tim asked their Facebook friends if they should wear some more conceptual matching outfits for the next one. They wanted to make a statement about commercialization that was all their own.

Michael Zavacky, from McMillan, is well known for his campy illustrations and love of vintage clothing and trends. He offered to make some matching tees for the Wantuck Twins.

That's where I chimed in and suggested "Doublemint", after the famous commercials of our Gen-X childhoods:



Everyone gave it a thumbs-up, Mike designed and screened suitably retro tees, the lads wore them to the Gallery last Thursday, and it was a big hit. I love it when a plan comes together. And I love the sense of community that our agency peeps have. You guys all rock.

Daryn and Tim's next sitting at Pop Life: Living in a Material World is this Sunday (SUNDAY! SUNDAY!) from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Check it out, and ask the boys for a stick of gum!