Pony is a socially engaged artist based in Montreal whose designs are worn by fans all over the world.

To launch her new mask collection, Pony faced two main challenges: increased competition from other designers (one of her major competitors is located 300 metres down the street from her boutique) and overall “mask awareness” fatigue.

In this context, how do you sell masks to people who are still not wearing them properly if at all?

By literally shoving their behaviour in their faces.

We turned Pony’s storefront window into an interactive display with a simple message:

Don’t be a dick. Wear your mask properly.

By repurposing SnapCam filter code and adding a layer of machine learning to our algorithm to improve the specific detection of noses and masks, we targeted people who weren’t wearing their masks properly. Pony’s iconic dickface character appeared only on unmasked noses.

Pony is a socially engaged artist based in Montreal whose designs are worn by fans all over the world.

To launch her new mask collection, Pony faced two main challenges: increased competition from other designers (one of her major competitors is located 300 metres down the street from her boutique) and overall “mask awareness” fatigue. In this context, how do you sell masks to people who are still not wearing them properly if at all?

The consumer insight: At this point in the pandemic, if you’re not wearing your mask like you should, you’re really just being a dick. Plain and simple. This was an opportunity to get a public health message across while attracting attention to Pony’s new collection.

Our strategy: Make the consumer aware of their bad behaviour in a concrete and tangible way. Given the artist’s online reputation and her offbeat designs, we knew we could push the limits and challenge people by literally shoving their behaviour in their faces. Pony’s colourful world was the perfect setup for an interactive pop-up experience to raise awareness of a real problem.

On November 27, 2020, just as holiday shopping was ramping up, our team installed an interactive screen in the window of her boutique to capture the naughty ways that passers-by wore their masks. As they stopped to check themselves out on the screen, Mr. Lonely, a charming yellow penis, popped out of the end of their exposed noses. The message on the window: Don’t be a dick. Wear your mask properly.

By repurposing SnapCam filter code and adding a layer of machine learning to our algorithm to improve the specific detection of noses and masks, we targeted people who weren’t wearing their masks properly. We filmed the initiative and posted it on Pony’s social media accounts.