The DIY MINI Cooper Crisis

The global supply chain crisis caused people to build do-it-yourself versions of literally everything. Due to shortages, many would-be MINI owners were struggling to get their hands on the real thing. But that never stopped them from expressing their love for the brand in a… rather unique way.

From furniture to an actual submarine, DIY content exploded across TikTok. But as the crisis ended, MINI USA realized they needed a way to announce their cars were back in stock. So we took the DIY trend insight and turned it into a ridiculous epidemic: The Do-It-Yourself MINI.

To combat the DIY trend and announce that production was back up to 100%, MINI teamed up with Pereira O’Dell, creative AOR of over 7 years, to create the Don’t Do It Yourself Department -- which pays homage to the original Counter Counterfeit Commission, launched nearly 20 years ago in 2005.

MINI USA took to DIYers’ favorite platform, TikTok, and posted seemingly real DIY MINI Cooper tutorial TikToks made by MINI fans who couldn’t wait any longer for their MINI.

Then they launched a fake task force, the Don’t Do-It-Yourself Department, to alert the public and call out MINI DIYers on their favorite platform. Some of the DIYs were fabricated IRL (including the MINI fully crocheted out of yarn), but most of the images were created with Pereira O’Dell’s AI Lab using generative AI tools.

Just when they had everyone convinced people were desperately trying to DIY the MINI, they made a big announcement: “Stop DIYing our cars. The MINIs are back. Go get a real one, right now.”