GSD&M's Air Force 'Horror' Campaign Ratchets Up the Agency's Weird Factor

(MoneyWatch)  There's something strange in the water at GSD&M Idea City. (Can't we just all agree to go back to calling it plain old GSD&M?) The Texas agency's latest campaign for the U.S. Air Force is titled "Horror Meets Comedy." You can write your own jokes from this point -- they write themselves, really.

Suffice to say, the title is more than a little poignant given that the military is having such difficulty getting new recruits because we're involved in a war with a country we invaded by mistake, only to find out that it did not, in fact, have weapons of mass destruction. On its own, that sounds like a pitch for a horror-meets-comedy movie -- with "hilarious" consequences!

In the campaign, eight horror directors will produce comedy movies viewable on Xbox Live. According to GSD&M's press release over on The Tribble Agency, the directors include James Wan & Leigh Whannel, "creators of the 'Saw' franchise." Of course, the torture pornography of the Saw "franchise" (at least they didn't call them movies, right?) was made possible by the Iraq war, which made torture a relevant topic for Hollywood.

Peter Cornwell, director yet-to-be-released "The Haunting in Connecticut," will helm "Post Apocalyptic Pizza." Quote: "which highlights that after a nuclear disaster even the most basic pizza ingredients command extravagant prices and no job is more dangerous than the pizza deliveryman."

That's right, Air Force recruitment is being done via a movie about a nuclear disaster.

It's not the only weird thing to have come out of GSD&M lately. The agency has apparently spent a year (!) working on its marketing plan "to brand the Interstate 10/Interstate 12 corridor" in Louisiana.

You'll have to wait until Nov. 19 for the results of their effort, which will be unveiled at the Community Foundation of Acadiana, 9 a.m., at the IberiaBank Tower, 200 W. Congress St., in the 12th floor board room, in Lafayette. Mark your datebook, Stuart Elliott.

And the agency has adopted a "purpose-based branding" credo, after Roy Spence (pictured) read a book. That prompted a pseudo-inspirational article from Adweek, which quoted the GSD&M brass waxing lyrical about going "upstream" into the "strategic realm," and other MBA leadership class clichés.

That piece ended on a more down to earth note. Russel Wohlwerth, principal at Ark Advisors, Playa del Rey, Calif., said:

I'm happy to see that the quality of work -- especially for BMW and Southwest Airlines -- has picked up considerably.