When we found out we were going to prepare an Easter campaign for Polus, we sniffed an opportunity.

We wanted to make Polus different from the competition, for it to be Eastery but funny, to push the traditional perception of Easter somewhere further, and not to forget spring. We knew that we had relative freedom and that the client was curious to see what we would produce.

We started, somewhat unusually, with the name. Our copywriters came up with the idea of Easter whips, which are associated not just with one of the main Easter traditions in Slovakia but also with the feeling of joy as spring approaches. The kind of idea when we ask another person if they’ve gone mad.

Then we jointly gave this rather typical name some atypical content. Of course, the event included markets and workshops for mums, dads, kids and whole families, but we also turned some Easter traditions on their head.

We showed what Easter would look like if we went whipping mad. We swapped roles. We gave power to the women. We tested just how brave men really are. In short, we let them endure what members of the gentler sex have endured every year for centuries.

In a reversal of Slovak Easter traditions, during the weekend our ladies could look forward to picking up a bucket and dousing their partners in water. Gentlemen, on the other hand, were guaranteed a Polus shopping voucher worth €20 and a nice dry T-shirt.

The essence of the key visual for the whole event was elegant typography consisting of the name accompanied by spring and Easter elements. This is how we combined the arrival of spring and the traditional festivities into one Easter whipping madness.

We also decorated the bus stop outside the shopping centre in a spring ‘dress’, and are pleased that, in addition, we managed to create a radio advert that’s just as whipping mad. The story takes place on Easter Monday, when the man is woken up by a splash of icy water followed by a few well-aimed lashes with a whip.

Are you whipping mad? - the shocked man asks his partner. This is exactly what the Easter campaign for Polus is like.