Rhett and Link’s Alka Seltzer road show (see previous post) hit Philadelphia recently, and it didn’t take them asking more than once to convince me and a bunch of YouTube Cewebrities to hit Pat and Gino’s to appear in this video. I picked up CharlesTrippy, ShayCarl, TheMightyThor1212 and those gals to stop by before the YoTube events. We did it for fun not profit, but Rhett and Link were classy enough to feed us, and even send us off with beer money for that night (thanks, guys).
Favorite moment? The nervous look on the face of the agency account manager as she reluctantly handed me a Speedy statue. Don’t worry, agency lady. I’ll behave with him.
Admitting my bias, I’m still putting this promotion down as one of the top three smartest viral video campaigns of 2008. It joins the ranks of BMW’s Rampenfest and Diet Dr. Pepper’s Cherry Coke promotion of TayZonday.
It’s funny, entertaining, balanced well (promotion is subtle), it’s leveraging the charasmatic appeal of two video stars who have been provided creative control of the series. Rhett and Link give us a perfect example of advertising content that is first entertaining. And the branding finds a happy medium between, on one extreme, dominating the video, and on the other relegating itself to ignored pop-ups or lost entirely. The topics are related to food, the tone revitalizes an otherwise stale brand, and Alka Seltzer’s differentiator (the plop, fizz) is not lost. Bringing back Speedy was brilliant too.
The only thing I’d say about all three of these campaigns is that they probably could have been done more cost effectively. Diet Dr. Pepper got TayZonday for a song, but had some production overhead (it was also hampered by the reality that the drink tastes like the smell of a chocolate scratch and sniff, and that’s coming from a hardcore Diet Dr. Pepper guy).
The Alka Seltzer road show was fairly shoestring for television and advertising rackets, but still could be leaner (do you need 5 or more people beyond Rhett and Link at the shoot?). I don’t know about Rampenfest, but it looks very, very expensive (guessing $500-$1,000 MM).
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That was very clever and funny. Edbassmaster was hysterical! You were OK, too Nalts.
What I want to know is, and maybe NutCheese can answer this, how do you eat with piercings in or around your mouth?
Now you are advertising Alka Seltzer, Nalts? First mentos, now this! What’s next? JAMBA JUICE?
Those guys are extremely funny. You should see their “Indy .500″ video if you haven’t already. The ending is to die for.
Yeah, sukatra, I saw that video. Pretty funny.
You know I think I’ve got the perfect meal:
A Gino’s steak wit wiz with a Jack Daniel’s Alka Seltzer Fizz stirred with an ambien swizzler. All while watching Electric Company on You Tube.
That’s got to be potent!
Hey. Just a comment about your ailments I read about on Twitter:
Jesus Christ! Did all of that happen as a result of your YouTube pratfalls? That REALLY sucks.
I don’t really know anything about this, but it seems to me that chronic pain can lead to inactivity and further health problems. Is it possible for you to do some kind of physical therapy in your pool? That way, there would be no impact on you bones, and you would be able to keep moving.
Anyway, I find your predicament weird and very unfair.
Now that Smosh has been suspended from YouTube, there’s nothing to prevent you from taking over, Kevin.
Oh, I meant to give yall the SOURCE of that late breaking Smosh news:
OK. Did anyone else think renetto’s video about smosh was a little snarky? WTF does he think he is? Was he in any way responsible for their account getting suspended? I don’t subscribe to smosh (too juvenile for me; yet I watch Nalts; go figure!), or renetto either, for that matter (too full of himself), so this is the first I heard of it. But I guess they are back.
YouTube is so full of lies, half truths, head games and pranks that you really can’t trust anything you hear there. Except on my nonfiction channel.
But I always believe everything anyone says; they wouldn’t put it on the Interwebs if it wasn’t true, right?
I think the only time Renetto is funny is when he’s snarky. I won’t say who, you know who you are, but someone told me they think Renetto is sexy when he’s snarky
I hope he did it! I love youtube chaos and drama – Renetto’s given it to the man! In your face! and all that.
Americans are way too polite and mousy, that’s why you have such idiots for leaders.
And getting suspended was Smoshs best video ever. They should stop there and go out on top! In the side bar they their last confession should be that it’s a proxy bots watching their channel and visiting others – gmab 17 million channels, no way Jose!
I don’t think Renetto is sexy, even when he IS being snarky. I think he’s pretty much always snarky. Doesn’t do anything for me.
Smosh never did anything for me either. Like I said, too juvenile. But I like Nalts, so I don’t know how to reconcile that.
One of the things I like about this blog is the honest rapport we have with each other. Some would call US snarky (hi, sukatra!), but I enjoy it.
Marilyn has a life size poster of Renetto buck naked on the inside of her closet door.
Wait- how did we get from Rhet and Link to naked Renetto? Someone penis poke Renetto please.
Done.
Sukatra: when were you in my closet?
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