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Case Study

Sex Lies and the College Cult | Peacock

We developed a marketing campaign to cement Peacock as the home for groundbreaking investigations and true crime stories that are culturally relevant and timely. This shocking story chronicles the abuse and manipulation of how a father brainwashed the students of Sarah Lawrence into a sex cult. Our challenge was to rely heavily on limited materials in order to accurately depict the story while highlighting the compelling question “Who is Larry Ray?” Our campaign involved everything from trailer and spots to key art and a show open.

Trailers & Cutdowns

In working with Peacock on yet another unbelievable and groundbreaking true crime story, we knew our creative approach needed to be handled with deep passion for true crime junkies, yet recognizing the need to approach our storytelling with sensitivity. Knowing that the documentary release was premiering 3 days before Larry Ray’s sentencing, we wanted to be as accurate and relevant, while balancing compassion for the victims in mind and creating intrigue for this incredibly enthralling question: Who is Larry Ray? 

We relied on exclusive interviews and b-roll footage to paint the picture of how deep the darkness went and touch on his manipulation, lies and deceit. 

Key Art

Due to the timing of the documentary launch coinciding with Larry Ray’s sentencing, we were limited in marketing approved assets, so we relied heavily on stock photography while leveraging his real-life mugshot in the art. Drawing inspiration from the documentary itself, we wanted this to feel unsettling, sinister and dark, conveying the manipulation of Ray through spiral hypnosis imagery. In addition, we wanted to center Ray’s terrifying image and dead stare to clearly position him as the perpetrator and cult leader.

Show Open

We developed a show open animation using elements from the key art look and feel to match the tone of the documentary. 

Our approach was to begin tight on Ray’s face then slowly pull back to reveal the eventual profile of a girl, while elements of spiral hypnosis imagery circle around her, finally unfolding the eight silhouettes appearing in the background.