A few weeks ago, our friends from the super local East End Film Festival got in touch to chat about a collaboration to coincide with the festival. We're big fans of the EEFF and their dedication to helping develop new filmmaking talent and give people in our local area access to a rich cultural programme. So naturally, we jumped at the chance. 

We put our thinking caps on and, flicking through the programme, discovered director-in-residence Noaz Desche's 'DEPROGRAMME' series of films about brainwashing and cult behaviour. It seemed like the perfect fit. After all, we in the advertising industry are accused of brainwashing people all the time, so why not use it to help spread the word about a great cultural event?

The result of our collaboration is a window installation in our Hanbury Street window space, where we regularly host self-initiated projects and collaborations with interesting creative people and companies. 

The idea of the window is simple: show people how easy it is to influence their thoughts and how they see the world. Quite literally. Using an optical illusion technique called 'after image,' we found a way to make sure visitors to the window would take an EEFF-themed impression away with them. 

Strong, propaganda-themed visuals on the window grab the attention of passers by and invite them to approach the window. When they put their eyes against the goggles and activate the installation by placing their hands on the sensors, a short abstract film plays. During the video, a bright camera flash magically leaves the EEFF's logo temporarily imprinted on their vision, whenever they close their eyes for a couple of minutes after the film ends. 

It's perfectly safe – trust us, we've tried it many, many times. But we do hope our experiment will make people think twice about how easily they accept the information that is fed to them on a daily basis. And we also think it's pretty cool.

If you're in the area, come and see how weak your mind is.

You can visit the festival until 12th July – more information here: www.eastendfilmfestival.com.

Big thanks to our everyone at East End Film Festival and to our guinea pigs (we mean, the team) here at W+K.