Gameday: The Cayenne Model Wall.

By John Doessel, Sr. Copywriter

It was a Saturday morning. And we were at a newly-built, outdoor, boutique shopping mall called The Palisades getting ready to launch The Cayenne Model Wall.

Behind a giant curtain, unbeknownst the people walking by (including John Goodman and Reese Witherspoon…) a wall was being assembled. A wall covered in nearly 1,000 model cars.

(If you don’t know, the Cayenne is an SUV. Five seats. A Porsche that allows you to share the sports car experience with others. Today, courtesy of our wall, it would be shared with hundreds.)

After a few hours of set up, we were ready. The wall was upright. The cars were adhered just so. And the time lapse cameras were inconspicuously perched in trees. Once we pulled the curtain, this giant structure would become fair game to the public.

Productions like this are always weird. No matter how much time and energy you spend planning, it’s hard to ever feel 100% confident. There’s no script. No “takes.” No actors or actresses. No director. No shooting boards. The only thing there is plenty of: unknowns

Are people actually going to take them? How fast? What if people take them too slow? Would the sun set? Would that ruin it? What if they take them in a weird pattern? What if they’re gone too fast? A mad, uncontrollable rush of toy-hungry people? How would we control it?

You get it.

You do everything you can to set yourself up for success and hope it works. But reality is, on gameday, you have very little control.

The clock struck 11:00, and it was finally time to answer these questions. We pulled the curtain and waited.

Though we didn’t wait for long.

LA people aren’t dumb. Curtain + Cameras = something cool. People flocked. A small group. They rushed to the wall to claim their miniature German treasure.

Then, so did some more people.

And some more people.

And some more people.

Wow. It’s working!

From there, the wall was never lonely.

In just under 3 hours, all the model cars were gone. Nearly 1,000 of them.

Yes, it was great it worked. It was great people took them. It was great the sun didn’t set.

But the greatest part of this whole things was seeing a silly advertising idea make so many people smile.

5-year-olds. 35-year-olds. 75-year-olds. It didn’t matter.

On this day, everyone was a wide-eyed kid holding their shiny new toy.