Crushed by Clutter

What does it feel like to live in an office or home when it is full of too much stuff?

Our average home size has been shrinking in recent years, particularly in urban areas. The average household already had too much stuff, but during lockdown we furiously filled our houses with more. Amazon deliveries, home gyms, exercise bikes, new kitchen gadgets, more children’s toys which all create clutter and mess. Too much clutter can feel debilitating. It creates stress, and can make us feel crushed.

This week Polish self-storage company Less Mess launches ‘Crushed by Clutter’, its first major brand campaign to create awareness of Less Mess and highlight the need for self-storage. The outdoor campaign was conceived by independent creative agency Mamapool and will feature 10m x 20m poster sites on Less Mess’ 15 self-storage locations across Poland and the Czech Republic. In the coming weeks there will also be OOH billboards and online digital films for Youtube and programmatic buys.

The posters were shot by globally acclaimed artist Photographer Hal, who resides in Tokyo. Photographer Hal vacuum-packs his subjects in plastic bags, literally sucking the air out of them. His work often features nude couples and explores themes of space and intimacy.

Guy Pinsent, CEO of Less Mess Storage: “General awareness and understanding of self-storage is still quite low in Poland and the Czech Republic so we wanted a really high impact campaign to cut through and raise awareness. Our stores provide the most fantastic locations to showcase Hal’s art so we hope at the very least to entertain and engage all those driving or walking past or coming to pick up or drop off their stuff. A core principle at Less Mess is to have fun and we certainly think that comes through in the work from Mamapool.”

Jason Mendes, Creative Partner at Mamapool said: ‘“Having too much stuff, whether physical or emotional, can be stressful. You feel trapped, almost suffocated. We’ve all felt like that for two years during lockdown. Of course this is an emotional problem that Less Mess Storage solves. It’s all there in their endline: Less Mess, Less Stress.
We felt that Photographer Hal's art perfectly captured that feeling. His work has an immediacy to it. It feels visceral and real. We knew it would resonate with a world opening up after COVID lockdowns when people could literally ‘breathe again’.”

The posters were all shot in-camera with no CGI. The process is an unusual one: the models and objects are carefully arranged in specially made large-format plastic bags, which are then sealed airtight. The air is then sucked out of the bag using a vacuum cleaner, leaving the subjects pressed up against the plastic, unable to breathe for 10 seconds whilst the image is captured. The bags are then ripped open and they can breathe again. On standby are oxygen masks and a full safety team if required.

The campaign was shot in Tokyo whilst being remote directed by Mamapool from the UK, with clients in Poland.