improv everywhere is a NY-based outfit dedicated to causing “scenes of chaos and joy in public places.” while similar to “flash mob” style escapades–large numbers of people appearing in a public place and then disappearing suddenly–improv everywhere’s goals for its “missions” extend beyond just organizing fun for the participants, but also focus deliberately outward to all the various bystanders caught along the way:

“We bring excitement to otherwise unexciting locales and give strangers a story they can tell for the rest of their lives. We’re out to prove that a prank doesn’t have to involve humiliation or embarrassment; it can simply be about making someone laugh, smile, or stop to notice the world around them.”

i just watched a video of their latest mission, the MP3 Experiment Four, in which participants all downloaded an MP3 of an “omniscient voice,” all convened in a park in lower manhattan, pressed play at the same time, and were all simultaneously guided through something like a cross between a game of simon says and a scavenger hunt.

what i found most fascinating about the whole process was the relationship that develops between the people “in” the game, and the unsuspecting random strangers who get caught up in it by accident. at one point everyone listening to the mp3 was instructed to point to the tallest building they could see. below is a picture from improveverywhere.com where someone not part of the experiment decided to join in and point as well, presumably without any idea as to why or at way exactly he was pointing, simply playing along with what everyone else around him was suddenly doing. (perhaps he wanted to see what the point of pointing was all about? maybe there would be a prize? or maybe it was just a case of monkey-see-monkey-do?)

during another part of the experiment participants were instructed to see if they could give a stranger a high five as the group walked from one location to another. anyone on an NYC-street knows what a high-five is all about, although it’s definitely not the kind of thing one expects to get from a random passerby. yet when so many people are doing it it becomes apparent that it’s not just some weird isolated incident, but that there is some kind of underlying code going on for this group that you are not aware of.

living in a polyglot, globalized world we’re prepared for the constant encounter with cultures and behaviors unlike our own, to the point that these different cultures around us have become almost like exhibits in a museum. vividly on display to us, but not to be touched by the tourists. in the same way we tend to just tune out the advertising that is not specifically directed at us and our culture. but is there a way for a message to manage to catch the attention and the interest of people outside of the group for whom it was specifically intended? like the way that the results of the instructions in this MP3 experiment swirled strangers up in a kind of cultural dust devil as it passed by. for a moment all the “tuning-out”–especially necessary in a place like new york–couldn’t stop an unexpected bit of strange behavior from compelling you to interact with it.

interesting stuff to consider especially in terms of how it applies to marketing messaging. how are the people on the “outside” interacting with a message targeted to a specific group? and even if they are passing it by without so much as a high-five, what are they hearing in it about the community for whom it is intended (and the brand)?

MP3 Experiment 4
Part 1:

Part 2: