Over 21 seasons, South Park has established itself as the king of social commentary. The show never gets tired of pushing boundaries by mocking everything and everyone mercilessly. There's no topic beyond their reach and no divisive issue they're afraid to tackle. South Park doesn't just inject its point-of-view into the cultural conversation around countless hot topics, it helps shape it in a clever and entertaining way. Our challenge for Season 22 was to create a launch campaign that mirrored the show's risk-taking boldness that it approaches every season with. We wanted to create so much noise around the show that there was no way you wouldn't tune in on premiere night to see who or what was next on South Park's cultural hit list.

South Park mocks society's most glaring hypocrisies, so we knew this had to be reflected in our campaign. In today's society, everything is problematic, everyone’s walking on eggshells, and cancel culture is more real than ever. “Cancel culture” is the idea that represents how shows are being canceled, brands are being canceled, and even people are being "canceled," when they say anything that upsets anyone. And if South Park premiered in 2018, it likely would have been canceled too.

With 21 seasons' worth of viewership data, we know where these viewers eat, sleep, breathe... Well, maybe not all of that. But we do know what they watch, what their interests are and what markets they live in, which was plenty to develop a sophisticated, data-driven marketing campaign for reaching the vast South Park fan base. We leveraged all of this data to inform every single part of our marketing plan: where to run outdoor ads, what TV placements to purchase, and who to target across social media platforms all in an effort to spur conversation around canceling South Park. This allowed us to deliver our message directly to the doorsteps, devices and commutes of our diehard South Park fans.

We created an arresting faux-activism campaign that was intended to spark the infamous controversy South Park is known for. What if South Park, viewed by some as the most offensive TV show ever created, finally crossed a line that was too far for even them to be spared from the same social media outrage that has 'taken down' so many other shows and celebrity careers already? Was it truly time to #CancelSouthPark? The key art was bold and minimalistic, leading with a giant "#CancelSouthPark," followed with the premiere date/time to pique curiosity around which inappropriate topic the show would be tackling on premiere night that would lead to a #CancelSouthPark outcry. The video campaign looked like real political ads featuring controversial topics, and stated "America Has Reached A Crossroads" before pushing the #CancelSouthPark movement. Once the creative went public, the reactions came pouring in!

The #CancelSouthPark campaign captured the attention of the press and consumers alike, and drove awareness – or, in this case, stoked fears of possible cancelation – surrounding the return of the series. While we didn't actually end up canceling South Park, our marketing campaign was a huge success for both the show and Comedy Central (U.S.). South Park premiered as the #1 Prime Cable Comedy of 2018 across Adults 18-49 and Men 18-49. It was also #1 in all of television on premiere night with Men 18-34. Socially, South Park was the #1 national Twitter trend on premiere night and ranked #1 for social activity for a Cable Comedy Episode in all day parts.

The “cancel culture” is currently very prevalent in the US. It's the idea that represents how shows are being canceled, brands are being canceled, and even people are being "canceled", when they say anything that upsets and/or offends a large enough group of like-minded people.