The McCheese Campaign

The McCheese Campaign


	Ah, Halloween! The time of year when you can put on a silly costume and get free candy. Apparently kids do this too. Whatever. Finding the right costume this year was tricky. After last year’s Operation and Scrabble costumes, the bar was set pretty high. I needed to find something that a) Has never been done, or at least not done often b) Provides a sufficient challenge to build, and c) Has a high pop culture / kitsch factor So after surfing the Inter-tubes, I tossed around the idea of going as H.R. Puffinstuff, an iPhone, Franken-Berry, Mashed Potatoes, and Bulgaria, but finally settled on everyone’s favorite politician. The man who rules McDonaldLand with a special-sauce-covered fist:


	Mayor McCheese


		I’ve been a long-time fan of foam. It’s soft, lightweight and has good bulk. Plus, I’ve worked with it so much I know most of the building properties of it. The problem is it’s ridiculously expensive. So I had to make the most of the little material I had. To accommodate for the foam on hand, I went with an oval design for the head, rather than the proper circle.

To cut the foam, I used a drywall saw and a metal grinder. You know, the same tools that professional costumers use. Rumor has it Edith Head was a whiz with a band saw.
	The bottom of the bun was easy enough, but it was getting the curvature of the top bun that proved difficult. First I hacked away chunks with the saw, then smoothed it with the grinder.

	Next I cut a hole for my head to fit through. I now had a very flat looking bun. If I had been making Mayor McHoagie, I would have been golden. To add depth and make room for my head, I crammed spare foam blocks in between the two layers. If this costume fails, I could always go as Stonehenge. Insert appropriate Spinal Tap joke here

	Here’s how I looked with the two halves. Vaguely McCheesy, but something else needed to be done. How do we make the top bun bigger when there’s no more ridiculously expensive foam to be had? We needed inspiration.
So Bill and I went to the source. After devouring several inspirations, we were no closer to our solution.
As we played around with the head, Bill noticed that by raising the back of the top bun, we could force the illusion of a bigger head.
So we cut a higher spacer for the back of the head.