A cure for the appsentminded

We’ve all done it, you’re midway through hypnotising someone into believing they’re a snake and your mind wanders, rendering them reptilian for all eternity.

In this age of attention deficit, it’s easy to lose one’s thread and get distracted in the middle of a task. This droll campaign created by Droga5 London, promotes Setapp’s subscription service for a suite of productivity apps that help users actually finish what they’ve started. 

Directed by Jeff Low, through Biscuit, the films extract comedy gold from extending scenarios to the limits of absurdity. 

In Snake, for example, Denis, a man with a phobia of said slithery reptiles is left in a trance, believing he is a snake when his hypnotist takes a call from a mate called Gregg half way through the consultation. Hilarity ensues when Denis is left limbless and hissing, sliding awkwardly around the place attempting everyday actions such as operating a vending machine using just his head. 

In Hide and Seek a distracted dad playing with his son sends him off to hide and is waylaid – again by a phonecall from Greg – leaving the poor nipper to obediently wait behind the curtain to grow old.  

In Disappearance, pesky Greg makes an ill-fated call to a magician who happens to be in the middle of performing a disappearing trick. His subject, John, is dispatched into the ether, leaving his poor wife to spend the rest of her days searching for him.