We hacked a vape
How do you make it seem like your ex’s leftovers just got incinerated…inside a box...at a Burger King...in Times Square?
Welp, you hack a vape.
Back in the day when all the cool kids were ripping JUULs [quick editor’s note: vaping nicotine is generally considered to not be a good idea], we worked on a project for Burger King with friends at Mullen Lowe to promote a collab during the release of Birds of Prey. The film follows Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn after her breakup with the Joker and is a sequel within the DC Comics Universe.
Right before the film release, we staged an overnight overhaul of the Times Square Burger King location — putting up tags all over the walls, on tables, bathroom mirrors, and on the flag outside. There were paint can props that made it look like Harley herself had just left in a fit of rage.
A centerpiece of the experience was a custom “burn box” we built. Simple idea: drop in some old artifacts that you might have hanging around from an ex lover, get a free Whopper in return.
Bringing it to life involved sourcing an off-the-shelf mail package box, painting it, applying vinyl lettering, and outfitting the inside with custom tech. The main challenge was in getting a puff of “smoke” to appear around the seams of the door to the burn box to imply that whatever was just put inside had indeed been roasted. Not too much, not too little. Then at the end, dispense a gift card for the free Whopper.
Here’s a BTS look at a prototype of a modified vape device during development
We project-managed the design and development working with longtime collaborator Joshua Gross over at Planetary. After reviewing potential options that involved various aromatic infusers, aquatic pumps and other pneumatics, we landed on an elegant solution that was able to deliver just the right puff we needed. Using foodsafe ingredients (read: zero nicotine), we were able to partially disassemble a vape device, hook it up to a series of pneumatic tubes and then regulate air flow with a pump to direct the smoke out the edges of the box. A simple relay switch triggered a sequence to begin and after everything was [seemingly] toasted to a crisp, out popped that gift card for a flame-broiled Whopper.
Guests were enamored by the burn box, which was there just long enough for influencers and media to swing by and experience.
The project was a fairly straightforward project from a technical complexity perspective. Getting the dosage of the puff just right was where art met science.
Taking on projects like this builds upon our broad understanding of relatively low cost hardware, open source software, and “hackable” off-the-shelf devices that are appropriate for various actions.
At the start of a project, we build out a technical brief that identifies at all the ingredients that are needed for the build to be successful: physical box, branding/instruction, smoke dispensing, power, automatic gift card dispenser — we then uncover all potential solutions, pick our likely candidates, purchase materials and prototype, then iterate and lock down a final design.
We’re often asked about durability of builds like this. How many times will something be used? How long does it need to be live? What environment will be in? How will people interact? Answers and assumptions to each of these inform our design strategy, which then informs the materials we buy and tech we build. In this case: how much food safe “juice” for the smoke device would be need to be inside the box at the start of the day? Can we rely on AC power nearby? Will it be overseen by a nearby brand ambassador to keep an eye on things?
If there’s a creative tech build you’re interested in exploring, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Solving production challenges like this is truly a blast. Nothing compares to the feeling when we get to watch the smiles on peoples’ faces after they interact.
