September 2011 Chatter
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The campaign for K-Swiss TUBES athletic shoes does a one-eighty on the product placement concept by taking a fictional character (Kenny Powers of HBO’s Eastbound and Down), building an advertising campaign around him, and then integrating him into the company brand with unabashedly vulgar and hysterically funny viral videos. Powers is a crude, misogynistic, washed-up major league baseball pitcher who blasts out his unwarranted egotism through a remarkably profane mouth. In other words, he’s no Derek Jeter and the last athlete anyone would want hawking their footwear—if he was real.
The brilliance of the K-Swiss campaign comes from knowing their market – young male consumers. Instead of boring them with yet another pro athlete’s paid endorsement, they’ve provided an anti-hero spokesman who appeals to their taste for irreverent humor and all things iconoclastic (literally, in this instance). The more recent viral video takes the theme even further with Kenny assuming control of K-Swiss through an exceedingly hostile takeover, and filling key executive positions with pro athletes whose collective lack of management skills is tragic (again, literally – there are casualties).
It’s insidious. Has Kenny Powers become part of the K-Swiss brand? Can you watch the show without thinking of K-Swiss? Will the advertising campaign attract viewers to the show? Where does entertainment end and reality begin? A little more than a year ago ABC began actually publishing the mystery novels “written” by the fictional author and primary character of the Castle TV series. People pay real-world money for virtual goods and property on Second Life, FarmVille, and other social games. Our old concept of “integrated campaigns” is maturing into something that transcends media and blurs the border between entertainment and reality. Gotta love it.
BOB MATTSON IS THE CO-FOUNDING PARTNER, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND SENIOR COPYWRITER AT SMM ADVERTISING.
Kenny Powers,the outrageous HBO Eastbound and Down character embodied by Danny McBride, is a vulgar, coke-snorting, misogynistic, delusional, egomaniacal athlete. In other words, his demeanor is depressingly similar to a large number of real top athletes today who seem to make just as many headlines for drowning dogs as they do for scoring touchdowns. The difference is that Kenny Powers (complements of McBride’s genius portrayal) isn’t depressing. He’s hilarious. Really f***king hilarious, actually.
The brilliant part of K-Swiss’s TUBES campaign is that the comedic kickstand the fictional Mr. Powers provides allows all his many foibles to be embraced, and unapologetically played for big laughs. But it takes more than an advertiser’s understanding of this dynamic in order for these elements to be crafted together and create an effective piece of viral communications—it takes a whole lot of guts.
It also takes a real understanding of what “viral” advertising is. Like Kenny Powers, viral is impolite, in your face, frequently crude, and potentially annoying. And that’s precisely why it works. You have to be willing to alienate 30% of your audience in order to make the other 70% stand up and cheer. The real danger of viral advertising isn’t going too far, it’s not going far enough. Metaphorically at least, you have to be willing to say “f***k.”
Kenny Powers says “f***k” a lot, and I count myself as one of the 70% who cheers every time he does. And although quotable lines like Kenny’s already legendary “Prepare to shut the f***k up” may never replace iconic slogans like Nike’s venerable “Just do it,” they undeniably have the same effect: they motivated me to purchase a pair of TUBES. And hey, wasn’t that the f***king point?
DAVE ROGAN IS A CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT SMM AND ROUTINELY DROPS THE F-BOMB IN CASUAL CONVERSATION AT A RATE THAT WOULD MAKE KENNY POWERS F***ING BLUSH.
Danny McBride’s first clueless, down-and-out athlete character, Fred Simmons, made his debut in 2006’s The Foot Fist Way. The movie grossed less than $250,000 but became an instant favorite of actor Will Ferrell, who also has a recurring cameo in Eastbound and Down.
We take a fun, fresh and creative approach to advertising. Call Jen at: 631-265-5160, or email: jschmitt@smmadvertising.com
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