Print Mailer: We See You When You’re Sleeping

For our December print mailer, we got festive. Rather than going with a classic cheery holiday picture, we couldn’t resist this eery photo of Santa at a remote roadside gas station by Raleigh-based photographer Brent Clark. We then tacked on the tagline We see you when you’re sleeping (for an even creepier effect) and sent it out to about 3,000 creatives (printed by Modern Postcard) to remind them of all of our services.

Brent gave us the backstory on the image, which was captured by chance one chilly Christmas Eve:

My Santa photo is one of the most popular images I’ve ever taken, and it happened by chance one Christmas Eve. While driving to my sister’s house for Christmas Eve dinner, I saw a man dressed as Santa standing by himself in the parking lot of a remote old-timey gas station in the little town of Archer Lodge, North Carolina.  The sight of Santa standing all alone at a gas station in the middle of nowhere was too good to pass up, so I pulled over to see if I could get a picture.  The man told me he was waiting for his young granddaughter to be driven by the gas station, so he could surprise her with a Santa sighting.  I asked if he would mind posing for a photo, and he was happy to oblige. Using a tripod, I took a couple photos using long exposures and only available light from the gas station.  The remote night-time atmosphere, matching reds, shimmering puddle, nostalgic station pumps, Marlboro sign, and store front, made for a surreal yet familiar image that is uniquely American. So basically, I got lucky!

If you’d like to check out all of our past print promos, see them here.

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