Close-Up: Four Feet From A Rat - Mother's London homage

Campaign 21-Mar-08

Shoreditch hotshop to publish quarterly graphic novel distributed by Time Out as a thank you to the inspiring city life.

Graphic novel, comic book or sequential art pamphlet - whatever you want
to call them, they're certainly not the usual stomping ground of an
advertising agency.

But ever the idiosyncratic agency, Mother has produced its own graphic

novel Four Feet From A Rat.

The quarterly publication will run as an insert in Time Out, and is a
contra deal where Mother has produced low-cost advertising in return for
distribution of the comic.

The first instalment came out this week and reveals no hidden brand
messages or communications, not even a Time Out logo.

According to Mother, this is a piece of "second generation" branded
content that will enrich the content of the magazine and enable the
agency to give something back to the people and environment that
inspires them.

Dylan Williams, the lead strategy director on the project, explains:
"It's not looking to communicate anything about Time Out, it's just a
contribution to the magazine that will improve the read."

The agency has tailored the stories to tap into popular London culture,
without seeming contrived. "We wanted to get into longer form content
without ruining popular culture by making it look laboured, obvious or
insidious," Williams says.

With this and Time Out's London-based readership in mind, the agency
devised four tales, with London as the protagonist, each taking a
different and rather twisted perspective of the city.

There is the tale of The Crane Gods, which depicts a group of aliens
trying to discover the secrets of a post-apocalyptic London; The
Routemaster reveals why London bus drivers are so miserable; The Little
Guy, which follows the beginning of a vigilante movement made up of
small traders attempting to regain their business back from powerful
multinationals; and Don Pigeone in which a pigeon overlord describes how
pigeons came to rule London.

Although the stories and words were produced by Mother, the agency
worked in partnership with graphic novel publisher Mam Tor to create the
imagery.

Despite this, they still believe the comic provides them with a
refreshing medium to showcase their creative talents. "We have the same
relationship with Mam Tor as we would with a photographer on a press
shoot. What unifies everyone at Mother is they get off on making stuff.
We've got a real buzz out of making it," Williams says.

Mother hopes the characters in the graphic novel will attract equity.
"Don Pigeone may not be as famous as Woodstock in Peanuts at the moment
but, in the future the characters could gain value," Andy Medd, a
partner at Mother, says.