Fugazi or Fur-gazi? Dice campaign stars hairy puppets and a plasticine brain

Here comes a corker of a campaign from Dice and Hong Kong-based director Luke Casey. Weirdly Easy is a new set of films that aims to show how easy Dice makes it to find and book gig tickets. And what better way to show the simplicity of a task than by filming a furry puppet – essentially “a blob of fur and padding” – do it with ease?

The campaign features a total of six campaign videos directed by Luke and developed in-house under ECD Patrick Duffy. Each film shows the Dice mascot, which made its debut in a rebrand last year, interacting with a range of other puppet characters, scenarios and using the Dice app to book gigs. In the first film, Dice created an entire Fugazi puppet tribute act. The next, a plasticine brain.

The campaign was shot in collaboration with Scale Model Studios, which “made all the puppets and brought them to life on the day,” says Patrick. “It was such a blast.”

A key part of the project is its unpolished look. Audiences are encouraged to look for the strings in each film, whether through a “dubious green screen” or a suspiciously human-looking hand gripping onto an iPhone in the place of a puppet. “The lo-fi approach just suits how we work at Dice,” says Patrick. “Even though we’re getting bigger year-on-year, we still want our work to represent that alternative mindset – so it was important for us to work with people who understand that way of thinking.”

Dice chose puppets for multiple reasons. They suited the Weirdly Easy concept and would allow the mascot to get visibility in lots of new scenarios. But perhaps most importantly, “puppets are just loads of fun,” says Patrick. After the team had immersed itself in references from The Adam and Joe Show to a US show called Wonder Showzen, puppets seemed like an opportunity to approach strange ideas with more freedom.

A range of other creatives also had their stamp on the campaign. Photographer Elizabeth Renstrom captured stills of the puppets amongst the handmade sets, while illustrators Junwoo Park, Leomi Sadler and Mikey Poster have delivered some “very limited edition Weirdly Easy merch items”, says Patrick, which will be launching soon.