By now everyone has become familiar with K-mart’s “Ship My Pants” video; released on April 10, 2013 it has more than 18 million views on YouTube. Due to it’s success, Draftfcb, the ad agency responsible for that irresistibly funny clip, introduced the world to “Big Gas Savings“. In 8 days, this video was seen more than 4 million times.
Similarly, Ogilvy & Mather assisted Philips Norelco in the release of their new electric shaver with the “I’d FAQ Me” on-line campaign. All though the video didn’t go viral like those produced for K-Mart, we can see that an interesting pattern is emerging.
Today was the first day I noticed Jello had launched their “FML: Fun My Life” campaign, people who use the hashtag #FML and mention the company in their tweet are getting a nice picture and text reply on how to make the situation better and fun. (Give it a try and see what you get in response).
I praise these companies for their selective use of language for comedic purposes, their willingness to take a risk is certainly generating world-wide buzz. Furthermore, it takes someone very witty to come up with those taglines and build a campaign around it.
What do you think about these; is it a new fad or a one (ok, maybe two) hit-wonder? Have you seen other similar campaigns?
Tower 88 