Heading into the fourth season of You’re the Worst, fans didn’t know the relationship status of the show’s dysfunctional on-again, off-again main couple. (But when one person leaves the other stranded at a romantic vista moments after popping the question, it’s safe to assume things aren’t good.)
We knew one thing for sure—no one would do a breakup quite like these two, so we leaned into the show’s snarky tone to imagine all the ways they might revel in causing each other pain.
We leaned into the highly relatable (and very shareable) theme of breakups for the full campaign, which came to life with social content, a microsite, and even a Facebook Live involving live turtles (yes, you read that right).
✧ SILVER SHORTY AWARD
✧ CLIO ENTERTAINMENT BRONZE
A series of special shoot teasers that were initially intended for social but ended up being used on-air to announce the new season. All those things you only wish you could say to your ex? Well, these characters actually would.
For the premiere, we wanted to create an experience that would recap the show’s previous three seasons in a way that was entertaining for new and existing fans alike. Enter: baby turtles.
We’d noticed that the most successful Facebook Lives seemed to be cute + interactive + a little bizarre, so we cast two adorable turtles as Gretchen and Jimmy to reenact some of the show’s most memorable moments, complete with turtle-scale sets and props (built by yours truly). We also opened up sections of the 15-minute broadcast for fans to vote on, like the very important decision of whether to feed our “actors” a mini salad or tiny fruit. It all paid off, with the broadcast reaching 100k+ views in 24 hours and fans letting us know how happy they were in the comments.
You’re the Worst, opening credits
You’re the Worst, opening credits... but with turtles
On social, our pre-season campaign celebrated the good, bad, and ugly of breakups through original illustrations, in-world character content, and special shoot pieces designed to be relatable while offering the show’s unique perspective.
For this project, I wrote special shoot scripts (my favorite), concepted and wrote a variety of break up-themed social posts, co-directed the Facebook Live, discovered a variety of tricks for crafting miniature sets + props, and even made my debut as a turtle hand model.
ECD: Fernando Ramirez
ACD: Ryan Shelton
PRODUCER: Greg Meltzer
DESIGN: Brandon Moats, Yuri Lence, Lucas Martinez, Jessica Kim, Ivonna Buenrostro
ANIMATION: Johnny Mabie
DEV: William Chen
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS: Alexis Strobin, Jessica Lee
SHOOT DIRECTOR: Chris Buongiorno
SHOOT PA: Sarah Kelly
TURTLE WRANGLER: Jules Sylvester