2020 was a challenging year in more ways than one, and many agencies acknowledged those hardships in holiday cards and video messages. One agency took a slightly different approach: CDM New York actually created their own eBay page to auction off “The Year 2020” at a starting price of a single penny.

They used eBay’s fields like Condition to describe the product as “Extremely used, barely functional” and the Product Description to detail everything from the missing parts, to the glitch in climate control, to the terrible noises it’s liable to make (Vin Diesel apparently put out an album in 2020, who knew?). In spite of it all, the page manages to end on a hopeful message for the year ahead: “Please check back for our upcoming listing of a mint-condition, high-end ‘2021.”

“I asked the team for a simple holiday card,” said David Stemler, Executive Creative Director of CDM New York. “They replied by asking, ‘Can’t we just sell 2020 on eBay?’ That was the easiest ‘yes’ I’ve ever said.”

“That said,” Kristen Gengaro, President of CDM New York added, “getting the tone right was really challenging, and so important to us. Families have been through so much this year. We needed to strike the right balance between humor and humility in both the copy and the ultimate cause.” The Product Description includes a pledge to donate all proceeds from the sale of 2020 to the front-line workers fighting the pandemic.

The post was ultimately removed by eBay and CDM was pretty much banned for life from the platform but, as they’ve noted on LinkedIn, they’re committed to fulfilling their pledge by personally donating to front-line workers who have so inspired them this past year.

You can learn more about CDM New York here:  www.cdmny.com