In
1999, Holden Westland (Tikifarm.com)
and Charlie Rubel (Studio531.com) launched eBachelorpad.
A website targeting 18-35 year old guys who wanted a one-stop location
on the net for bachelorpad essentials, like swanky furniture, cool
music, tiki lounge items, home bar cocktail shakers and drinkware,
etc, (you get the idea). Our mascot for the website was none other
than Sammy Swank™! Sort of a cross between Bond, Sinatra, Hef
and Elvis, Sammy was, and still is, the "Quintessential Bachelor".
In order to sell our products, our original concept for Sammy and
eBachelorpad, was the Virtual
Pad ( Sammy Swank's Ultimate Bachelorpad ) which incorporated
a Flash room to room click through that combines online entertainment
and marketing by displaying products in an appealing way and sometimes
funny way to our target demographic. This concept evolved into Swank
Island, where the Virtual Pad became located and Sammy Swank's cartoon
series (aka SwankTV)
could be launched from. A tropical island located somewhere in the
South Pacific ( the perfect bachelorpad headquarters ) Swank Island
is where Sammy hosts killer parties at Club Swank, skis his own ski
resort, surfs his own surf spot (Swankamea Bay) and runs Operation
Swank, a search and rescue operation that focuses on saving members
of the female gender from dastardly villians and precarious situations,
with the byproduct sometimes turning into a saving of the world type
thing.
There were many, many, many hours
that went into the creation and production of Swank Island. Unfortunately,
funds ran out for eBachelorpad and the production of Swank Island
came to an end, when the dot.bomb hit the economy. Every once in while,
however, we find reasons to use pieces or parts of the place we'd
all like to move to, in other productions, for example on the Tiki
Farm website. We hope you enjoy.
