Thinkmodo Turns Net Neutrality Into a Stop-Motion Music Video
Thinkmodo's 'Don't Flush Our Rights Down the Toilet' is a 2014 digital self-promotional campaign produced as a stop-motion music video built around an original song, designed to mobilise public support for net neutrality during the FCC's open public-comment period in the United States.
Thinkmodo, the New York-based agency and production shop founded in 2011 by writer-filmmakers Michael Krivicka and James Percelay, produced the campaign on behalf of Namecheap, a domain registrar with a strong public position on open internet legislation. The concept placed people on moving toilets while using their phones, threading together a visual metaphor for digital rights being literally flushed away. The campaign's central tagline — 'So don't flush our rights away' — provided both the musical hook and the civic call to action, as documented across Thinkmodo's own records and confirmed by Clapboard.com.
Launched in September 2014 in the United States, the campaign arrived at a moment of acute regulatory tension. The FCC was then accepting public comments on proposed changes to its open internet rules, making the timing of the release strategically precise rather than coincidental. By framing advocacy as entertainment, Thinkmodo positioned the campaign simultaneously as a client deliverable for Namecheap and a demonstration of the agency's core capability: transforming political or cultural urgency into shareable digital video. The campaign contains a single media asset — a digital video — placing its entire communicative weight on one piece of creative execution. That economy of format is itself a strategic statement from an agency whose reputation rests on singular, high-concept moments.
Thinkmodo built its creative identity around high-concept viral executions that generate earned media rather than paid distribution. The net neutrality debate gave the agency a subject with both mass relevance and genuine urgency inside the United States technology and media community in 2014. The FCC's open-comment period created a narrow, time-sensitive window for public advocacy, and Thinkmodo exploited that window by producing content designed to circulate organically through the same open internet the campaign was defending.
The broader media and entertainment landscape in 2014 was expanding rapidly. According to PQ Media, the global branded entertainment market reached a substantial scale in that year, underscoring how much commercial value was flowing through the digital content formats that net neutrality directly protected. Any regulatory shift allowing internet service providers to create tiered access would have structurally disadvantaged independent digital video producers and small agencies — including Thinkmodo itself — relative to larger media companies with infrastructure deals. The campaign was therefore simultaneously altruistic advocacy and enlightened self-interest.
Competitors operating in the viral and stunt video space at the time, including agencies such as Shareability and established experiential shops, rarely turned their self-promotional work into overt civic campaigns. Thinkmodo's decision to do so set the work apart from the category's typical fare of behind-the-scenes reels and award submissions. By aligning with Namecheap — a brand already vocal on open internet issues — the agency ensured the campaign had a credible client voice behind it rather than reading purely as self-aggrandisement. That alignment sharpened the message and broadened its potential audience across the United States technology, media, and entertainment press.
Michael Krivicka directed and edited the campaign, with James Percelay co-directing and co-producing alongside him. Associate producer Sam Pezzullo contributed to the production, and animation was handled by Studio Nos, as documented by Clapboard.com. The division of labour reflects Thinkmodo's characteristic lean production model, in which its founding creative directors retain hands-on control across concept, direction, and post-production simultaneously.
The stop-motion format was a deliberate craft choice. Stop-motion introduces an inherent visual rhythm — the slight mechanical jitter of frame-by-frame animation — that gives even mundane subjects a kinetic, almost comedic quality. Applied to people sitting on toilets while scrolling phones, the technique transforms a bathroom absurdity into a coherent visual argument: the internet, like a toilet, is infrastructure that people use constantly and think about only when it is threatened. The original song, written by Thinkmodo themselves, carried the campaign's tagline as a repeated lyrical hook, ensuring that even a viewer who skipped visually still received the message aurally, as reported by sources including mixergy.com and mosomos.com.
Studio Nos' animation contribution layered an additional production dimension onto the live-action stop-motion foundation, suggesting the final piece contained at least one sequence where animated elements reinforced or extended the core imagery. For a single-asset digital campaign with no paid media support, the production investment in both live-action stop-motion and bespoke animation is notable. It reflects Thinkmodo's consistent philosophy — articulated by Krivicka in interviews cited by sources including thinkmodo.com — that the production quality of a stunt or concept video must be high enough to justify a viewer's attention in an environment of infinite competing content.
No verified performance data for 'Don't Flush Our Rights Down the Toilet' is publicly available in terms of view counts, shares, or measurable impact on FCC public-comment submissions. The campaign holds a Clapboard Score of 72 out of 100, which reflects strong creative concept and contextual relevance offset by the inherent limitations of a single-asset self-promotional piece without documented reach metrics.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness rests on several durable assets. It aligned a culturally resonant political issue — net neutrality — with a digestible creative format at precisely the moment public attention in the United States was highest, during the FCC comment window. The music video structure gave broadcasters and digital publishers a natural editorial peg: a song about policy is an easier embed than a lecture about policy. The toilet metaphor was bold enough to generate genuine visual memorability without crossing into content that platforms would restrict.
Thinkmodo's broader 2014 body of work provides useful comparative context. As reported by Forbes, an earlier Thinkmodo campaign for HeadBlade — 'Shaving Helmet' — was credited by the client with a thirty-one percent increase in sales, demonstrating the agency's capability to produce measurable commercial outcomes from unconventional creative work. While no equivalent commercial metric exists for this net neutrality campaign, its existence as an agency self-promo piece meant its primary KPI was reputational: demonstrating range, civic awareness, and production craft to prospective clients across the United States media and entertainment sector.
'Don't Flush Our Rights Down the Toilet' is a 2014 digital stop-motion music video produced by Thinkmodo for Namecheap. It advocates for net neutrality in the United States using an original song built around the tagline 'So don't flush our rights away,' timed to the FCC's public-comment period on open internet rules.
Michael Krivicka and James Percelay directed and produced the campaign. Krivicka also served as editor. Sam Pezzullo was associate producer, and animation was handled by Studio Nos. All credits are documented by Clapboard.com and reflect Thinkmodo's standard lean creative structure, with its founders retaining direct control across production roles.
Thinkmodo produced the campaign for client Namecheap during the FCC's 2014 open public-comment period in the United States. Net neutrality directly affected independent digital video producers, making the issue personally relevant to the agency. The campaign simultaneously served Namecheap's advocacy goals and demonstrated Thinkmodo's capacity to turn civic issues into shareable content.
Thinkmodo used stop-motion animation featuring people sitting on moving toilets while using phones. Studio Nos contributed additional animation. An original song written by Thinkmodo carried the campaign's core message as a repeating lyrical hook, ensuring the net neutrality argument was communicated through both visual and audio channels in a single digital video asset.
The campaign holds a Clapboard Score of 72 out of 100. This reflects strong concept relevance and precise timing against the FCC comment period, offset by its single-asset format and the absence of publicly verified distribution or performance metrics for the United States market.
Thinkmodo founded in 2011 by Michael Krivicka and James Percelay built its reputation on high-concept viral executions. The net neutrality campaign extended that model into civic advocacy, distinguishing the agency from competitors in the United States stunt and viral video space by producing self-promotional work with explicit political and cultural stakes.
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