A large billboard on a gray building featuring construction machinery, with the text 'We Are Earth Flatteners' and 'We Are Not Flat Earthers'.

EARTH FLATTENERS

Everybody knows the earth is flat...right? Right? Well, at least that's what RDO Equipment and John Deere believe.  The duo was on a mission to make that theory a reality with top-of-the-line equipment to make any surface F-L-A-T. 

Hank Designs was tasked to art direct a campaign that tugged on the strings of the flat earth believers. The campaign needed an approach that felt astronomical and orological. Deliverables included a look and feel, environmental collateral, print collateral and campaign videos.

Agency
Geometry

Credits
Creative Direction: Oswaldo SA

Client
John Deere
RDO Equipment

Scope
Art Direction
Environmental Design
Typography Treatment
Digital & Print Collateral

A motivational quote that reads, "Earth doesn't get much flatter than this," with "Earth doesn't" and "get much" in gray, and "flatter" and "than this" in yellow, on a black background.
A promotional image showing heavy construction machinery including a bulldozer, an excavator, and a loader, all branded with Deere, against a starry night sky with the text 'We Are Earth Flatteners' and logos of John Deere and RDO Equipment Co.
Construction site with a bulldozer, an excavator, and a dump truck working on dirt under dark cloudy skies.
A yellow excavator with a worker inside operating it, scooping up dirt on a construction site under a blue sky with wispy clouds.
A yellow bulldozer moving dirt on a construction site under a blue sky with some clouds.
A laptop displaying a webpage about John Deere construction equipment featuring several construction vehicles against a dark background with graphic elements.

OUT IN THE WILD

After establishing the look and feel, the campaign was set to take on the wild and get the word outside of social media. Hank Designs created concepts to show how print and gorilla marketing has the room to expand the flat theory...I mean reality.  

A mural on a brick wall showing construction vehicles from John Deere on a dirt pile, with the text 'Earth doesn't get much flattery than this' in bold, with the John Deere and RDO Equipment logos.
Poster showing a yellow bulldozer and the text, "Our machines stop right at the edge. The 750L crawler, flattens any curve." The poster features logos from John Deere and RDO Equipment.
Empty subway or train station interior with an advertisement billboard that reads 'Meet the Earth Flatteners' and features construction vehicles on a dirt hill.
Black trucker cap with yellow text that reads "I'm an earth flattener" on the front panel, and mesh back panels.
An illustration of a John Deere 750L crawler bulldozer on a mound of dirt with a night sky background. Text highlights: 'Our machines stop right at the edge. The 750L crawler flattens any curve.'
An advertisement featuring a yellow John Deere 850L crawler bulldozer at a construction site with a large rock in the foreground. The background includes a starry night sky and stylized topographical and planetary graphics. Text states, "Some people believe the Earth is flat. We make it flat. The 850L crawler, flattens any curve." Logos of John Deere and RDO Equipment Co. are in the top left corner.
Advertisement featuring a John Deere 750K crawler bulldozer on dirt at night with a starry sky background, illuminated by lights, and a large yellow circle. Text asks 'Is the earth flat?' with the answer 'No. Can it be? Yes.' and promotes the bulldozer's ability to flatten any curve.
A person wearing a black shirt, black shorts, white socks, white sneakers, and a face mask walks past a construction billboard on a city street. The billboard has images of construction machinery and text about flattening the earth.
Three vertical banners on a building wall with protest slogans about earth flattening, with a black-and-white statue of a man wearing a yellow safety helmet. There is a tree in front of the banners, and a lamppost in the foreground.