Bytes gets violent with printers

VAR Bytes Document Solutions has a smashing time as it launches viral ad campaign

Bytes Document Solutions is gearing up to launch its first viral advert which includes its staff smashing up printers with axes and sledgehammers.

The campaign, Ihateprinters.co.uk, features six Bytes staff who drew lots to take part in the ad, dressed in lab coats and goggles to take out their frustrations.

It was shot at a secret location on a derelict farm in Surrey, and uses Reservoir Dogs-style camera shots. A total of eight production-quality HD cameras and one slow-motion camera were used to capture the footage, and the film ends with a paint fight, fireworks and a printer falling from the sky.

To view the video click here.

Explaining the madness, Darren Spence, the brains behind the idea and managing director of Bytes Document Solutions, said: "If you ask the average office worker or IT professional what they think of their printer, they'll tell you that on many occasions they have wanted to smash it up.

"People just want their printer to work but the devices have a habit of breaking down at the most inconvenient time, such as just before a document deadline or concurrently when every other printer in the building decides to stop working.

"Our managed print service fixes these frustrations so we felt a film featuring some of our people smashing printers to pieces with axes and sledgehammers was apt and long overdue.

"We felt it our duty to take on the burden of corporate plc and every frustrated office worker in the country and fight back. No longer should the office printer control our lives, it was payback time - it was time to settle the score by taking a few outside and smashing them to smithereens with a variety of heavy-duty tools."

Spence said it wasn't only the printers that took a beating. Unfortunately two cameras ended up being smashed to bits, and a paint fight damaged two more.

The video will be the second released by the VAR. Its first one can be found here.