Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S1E15 - Charlie Bit My Ad: When Advertising Works Too Well

Episode Date: April 14, 2012

Back in 2007, a cute video of two kids was uploaded by their father. In it, one kid bites the finger of the other. That video, called "Charlie Bit My Finger" went on to attract 420 million views. To say it over-performed would be an understatement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 1, 2012. you're not you when you're hungry you're in good hands with us you're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Ouch! Ouch!

Ouch, Charlie! Ouch! Charlie, that really hurts! Jolly! Help! Jolly! That really hurt! No, Jolly bit me. And that really hurt, Jolly, and it's still hurting. It was posted on YouTube on May 22nd, 2007. The 56-second video showed two brothers from England sitting together named Harry and Charlie Davies Carr.

Three-year-old Harry puts his finger into the mouth of one-year-old brother Charlie. Charlie bites it. Harry's not happy. The funniest part of the video is little Charlie's response to inflicting pain on his brother. He just giggles, seemingly fully aware of what he's just done. Their father posted it so that their godfather, who lived in the States, could see the boys growing up. The clip was too large at that time to email, so he put it up on YouTube.

Views to date? Over 420 million. To say this simple, humble video overperformed on YouTube is an understatement. It is the most viewed video on YouTube that is not a professional music video. It has its own Wikipedia page. It is the 13th most shared viral video of all time on the Internet.

In Time Magazine's list of the greatest viral videos of all time, it ranked Charlie Bit My Finger number one. Harry and Charlie have become famous. They have their own blogs and video series, Charlie Bit My Finger t-shirts and limited edition calendars. Harry and Charlie fan clubs have been established all around the world. Web experts believe that the Davies Carr family

has made over $200,000 from the 56-second video through the YouTube Partnership Program, which places ads adjacent to highly viewed videos, and YouTube shares the revenue. There are several payment schemes. For example, you can get paid $0.95 per thousand views, or get paid each time someone actually clicks on an ad. What made Charlie bit my finger become a worldwide sensation no one can say by all measures it's merely cute but it is an off the charts viral success story the world of marketing has its own Charlie-bit-my-finger success stories. Some of my favorites are about ads that became too successful,

ads that were too effective. As a matter of fact, these ads worked so well that they created problems for the advertisers. The overwhelming success became a burden. It's a highly entertaining phenomenon when advertising works too well. You're under the influence. If I were to ask you what the definition of a good ad was, what would you say? One that is highly creative?

One that isn't annoying? One that you can remember? Well, yes to all of the above. But the real definition of a good ad is one that sells. A good ad moves goods and services. While there are tactical and secondary goals in advertising, the main one is to sell product. How well ads do can only be discussed on a case-by-case basis. Some do extremely poorly. I once wrote a print ad for a new plastic product for DuPont. In it was a phone number for interested companies to call for more information.

DuPont didn't get a single phone call. It would have helped if we had put the right phone number in the ad. Some ads do incredibly well. The current campaign for Newfoundland and Labrador tourism is a case in point. In a world oddly bent on conformity, there's something strangely encouraging about a place that's anything but. Newfoundland and Labrador.

This is a particularly powerful campaign because in Newfoundland there is no such thing as an accidental tourist. It's not especially easy to get there. It takes deliberate planning. You can't just drive there on a whim. Your choices are air or sea. After all, it is the most easterly point in North America. You are confronted by the obstacles of distance, time and cost.

The tourism season in Newfoundland is only 75 days long. In an era of decreased tourism due to recessions, terrorism, and darkening financial news, almost 50% of Canadians plan to spend less on summer vacations. Above all, as a province, Newfoundland has one of the smallest advertising budgets. Yet, in spite of all these negative forces, this remarkable campaign created by St. John's advertising agency Target Marketing and Communications has increased tourism year over year. As a matter of fact, 2010 was a record year,

and, for the first time in history, the visitors outnumbered the population of the province. When you're always a half hour ahead, you never feel the need to catch up. Newfoundland and Labrador. Then there is another category of ads, the ones that work too well. You might not think that's possible, that a commercial can actually overperform, but it's true.

And sometimes, when an ad sells too well, it creates big problems. Just ask Pizza Hut Back in 2005, Pizza Hut came up with a special promotion. It was for a full-house, extra-large pizza. It was 30% bigger than a large pizza, and the best part was it only cost $9.99. The theme of the commercial centered around the line, Feed Me, borrowed from the movie Little Shop of Horrors.

It was to be a big promotion, with three commercials featuring a list of big-time celebrities, like Donald Trump, Naomi Campbell, The Muppets, Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson, the host of Survivor, Jeff Probst, and even Audrey, the plant from Little Shop of Horrors. Around the world, the call is heard. Feed me! Feed me! After the game, he said, Feed me! The hungry need to be fed.

Feed me! Wait till late. 40 seconds. Feed me! Feed me. So get them the new Full House Extra Large Pizza from Pizza Hut. Now you're talking. 30% bigger than our large for a very tiny $9.99. That's 30% more satisfying Pizza Hut pizza.

I'm fed. I'm fed. I'm fed. The new Full House XL Pizza. It feeds them till they're full. That commercial didn't only work well, it worked too well. The Full House EL Pizza sold out all over the country. The problem was, nobody was ordering the regular pizzas anymore.

The whole idea behind the promotion was to draw people into the Pizza Hut stores so they would order the low-cost, low-profit promotional pizza and buy other profitable items while they were there. But that didn't happen. People stopped buying regular pizzas and only bought the new XL. So the Pizza Hut franchises started to lose money. It wasn't just a small problem.

It was a big problem. So big that the commercial was pulled in just a few days. Not only that, it was pulled while the third celebrity commercial was being shot. So it and the second celebrity commercial were left unfinished,

filmed, but never used. You can imagine the losses for Pizza Hut. The cost of all those celebrities. The cost of the film shoot. The cost of the media time. The unrealized cost of leaving big production commercials unfinished on the cutting room floor.

And, of course, the losses occurred when the nation gobbled up the low-to-no-profit promotional pizza at the expense of all the other menu items. It was a case of the advertising working so well, over-performing to such a degree, that it simply had to go. Everybody wants to feel sexy. Everybody wants to be attractive. And nobody yearns to be chased by girls more than teenage boys. Once upon a time, Axe Deodorant Body Spray wanted to understand their potential customers. According to Martin Lindstrom's book titled Brandwashed,

Axe parent company Unilever did research by following roughly 100 males aged 15 to 50 into bars. They quietly made notes and watched the men in action as they tried to meet girls. Unilever repeated this same experiment in Europe and Latin America. Then they took their research and decided their potential Axe users

could be broken down into six psychological profiles. Like the predator, defined as a male who takes advantage of the effects of alcohol and lies about his job and where he lives to impress girls. The natural talent, athletic, smart, and confident,

doesn't need to lie to score. Marriage material, humble and respectful, the guy you bring home to mom and dad. Always the friend. The kiss of death in dating. The you're more like a brother

to me guy. The insecure novice. The guy who doesn't have a clue how to act or what to say to women. The geeks and the nerds in other words. And the enthusiastic novice. has no idea what he's doing,

but comes across as eager, not creepy. While the people at Axe wanted to appeal to all six of these segments, they decided their biggest area of opportunity were the last two categories, specifically the insecure novice. This group lacked self-esteem and confidence and would be most open to Axe Deodorant's promise of being irresistible to multiple women. Very effective commercials were created from that premise.

In this one, a teacher stands before a class of adults and teaches English as a second language. Man. Man. Woman. Woman. Cat. Cat.

Dog. Dog. Then, a young male student walks in late, obviously wearing Axe deodorant. Bow-chicka-wow-wow. Bow-chicka-wow-wow. deodorant. According to Lindstrom, the campaign was an instant hit and Axe became the number one male product in the total antiperspirant deodorant category. Unilever earned $71 million from Axe in 2006, $50 million more than their nearest rival.

The next year, sales went up to $186 million. But the ads started to work too well. The problem was the commercials overperformed in persuading the insecure novices to buy the product. Geeks and dorks everywhere were buying Axe by the caseload. They were dousing themselves in it before going to class, which caused issues, and a school in Minneapolis actually going to class, which caused issues and a school

in Minneapolis actually tried to ban Axe. But this wasn't the biggest problem. Because geeks and nerds were buying Axe so frequently, it started to hurt the brand's image. Suddenly, to most high school and college males, Axe had essentially become the brand for losers. Sales took a big hit. The advertising had worked too well.

So Unilever had to throttle back on their very successful marketing and completely recast their leading men to be more cool. It was a classic case of the dog catching the car, then realizing, wrong vehicle.

And we'll be right back. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives, available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. Speaking of sexy. Fashion retailer H&M wanted to advertise a new line of bikini swimwear in Germany. The advertising idea was simple. Plaster the country with posters of supermodel Heidi Klum wearing the sexy bikini.

Did it work? Within hours, all 750 posters were stolen. Not only were they stolen, people smashed display cases to get them. Imagine that for a moment. Their entire advertising campaign had been shoplifted. All they were left with were empty poster spaces and a media bill for them. H&M had to hire guards to protect the display cases while they figured out a solution.

Finally, they decided to give away Heidi Klum posters for free. And with that, no more were stolen. But there was good news too. The ads had also overperformed at the cash register. The Klum posters became one of the most successful advertising campaigns in Germany. And retailer H&M sold more bikinis than they'd ever sold before. Back in 2000, Advertising Age magazine voted a commercial for Pacific Bell as the best of the year. The ad strategy was to tell viewers

that shared internet on cable was slow. The theory being that when more people share the bandwidth on cable, the internet gets sluggish. Whereas, Pac Bell offered DSL lines, meaning internet over phone lines, which is not shared. The commercial was titled Neighborhood.

It was narrated by a fictional resident of a place called Laurel Lane, who said everything on his street was fine until everyone started sharing the same cable line for Internet. As the Internet got slower, people started acting unneighborly. Laurel Lane used to be such a nice place to live. Everyone used to be friends in this neighborhood. But then everyone started sharing the same cable line for the internet. That's when things online got slower and people started acting, well, downright unneighborly. Then we see a man using a hedge trimmer suddenly lean over his fence and trim all the heads off his neighbor's flowers.

We see another man washing his car with a hose. Then he points the hose at his neighbor's car, which has an open window. Then we see a boy on a bicycle delivering newspapers, and a paper gets thrown back at him. The commercial ends with the words, Don't share a cable line. Get Pacific Bell DSL. Always fast, never shared. It's a very funny commercial that you can see on our website.

The response to the commercial was overwhelming. Pacific Bell got inundated with calls. They struggled to fill a backlog of orders. They simply couldn't keep up. Soon, the spot was pulled off the air. It had worked too well. But in a delicious twist of fate, that success also led to an ironic footnote.

In order to deliver their service to all those new customers, Pacific Bell had to install additional hubs, which meant, in the end, neighbors had to share DSL lines. William Shatner has been the spokesperson for Priceline.com for 14 years. The company was founded in 1997, and it offered travelers a unique way to find the best prices on things like flights, hotel rooms, and car rentals.

Essentially, you would name the price you wanted to pay for a certain level of hotel room at a specific destination and wait to see what hotel accepted your offer. It was a good deal for travel operators, too, as it helped them sell

perishable inventory. When a plane takes off with an empty seat, it has perished on the books, meaning it can no longer generate revenue. Same with empty hotel rooms. If a day goes by without a guest, its revenue potential has evaporated. In this Priceline commercial, Shatner explains the concept by convincing a hotel operator to come on board. We need a hotel deal. I'm on it. Priceline negotiator!

Hello there. Not my driver. I'm here looking for a discount. Yeah, well, my hotel doesn't discount. That's one way you could go. Look, if you give me deals, I can fill your empty rooms. That could work. It's win-win.

Okay, just pull over. Nice negotiating with you. Save up to half off on hotels at Priceline. So, for 14 years, William Shatner played the role of the negotiator. In each commercial, he would answer a hotline asking him to help people negotiate great savings. A guy is worried about naming his own price? I'm on it. Price my negotiator!

Naming your own price, huh? Yeah, they want $200 for a Forester on the Vegas Strip. I'm going $190. Oh, you wuss. What? Go lower. $160? Namby-pamby.

$140? Cupcake. I want a good room. It's a guaranteed four-star room, mama's boy. $99. No, you're negotiating. Save up to half off on hotels at Priceline. But this year, Priceline changed their strategy.

They wanted to move away from their familiar name-your-own-price format and go to a fixed-price discount structure instead. But Shatner was so associated with the negotiator that it presented a big problem for Priceline. Essentially, the ads were working too well. When the public saw Shatner in a Priceline commercial, they immediately thought, name your own price. It was preventing Priceline from introducing the new format.

The Shatner campaign was just too powerful. So, they decided to kill off his character. Literally. In maybe an advertising first, Priceline actually killed their Shatner spokesperson in a commercial. The ad opens where a tour bus is seen hanging precipitously off a bridge, teeter-tottering back and forth. The passengers think their number is up,

but Shatner kicks open a back door and helps them to safety one by one. Maybe this vacation wasn't a good idea. Vacations are always a good idea. No time. Out, quickly. You're miles from your destination. You'll need a hotel tonight. We don't have time to bid.

You don't have to bid. At Priceline, you can choose from thousands of hotels on sale every day. Notice that Shatner explains the new Priceline discount model. Then, just as he helps the last person out, the bus suddenly tips over, falls off the bridge, and lands in a fiery crash. Save yourself. Some money. With Shatner still on board.

Then, to take the curse off the moment, one of the passengers books a hotel room on her cell phone and says, It's what I would have wanted. No one was more shocked than I was, Shatner told Advertising Age magazine. He said he learned about the negotiator's demise in traditional Hollywood fashion by reading the script he was sent for the commercial. But Shatner made it clear he understood the business decision. Even though his negotiator commercials averaged 20% better recognition

than rivals Travelocity or Expedia, even though his campaign tracked 5% higher than the average for all TV ads, and even though Priceline's revenue was up 45% from the last quarter, Shatner had to go. His success was getting in the company's way,

proving it is possible to have too much of a good thing, even in advertising. Price by Nicotegator! All advertisers have one big wish, to be overwhelmed with sales. Advertising agencies live and die by the sales they generate for advertisers. Advertisers live and die by the revenue those sales produce.

And the biggest source of friction between advertiser and advertising agency is the effectiveness of ads. Then there's that other special problem, where, sometimes, an ad works too well. Ads that overperform are rarities, but they produce their own delicious ironies, like Pizza Hut creating a promotion that kills the rest of their sales, or Axe Deodorant promising nerds irresistible sexual attraction and then realizing it's become known as the brand for losers.

Or H&M, seeing their entire advertising campaign go missing. Or Pacific Bell, trying to woo customers away from having to share cable internet lines only to attract so many new customers that they end up having to share PacBell DSL lines. As a result, all of these over-performing ads had to be killed. Then there's Priceline.com. Not only did they have to kill their uber-successful ads, they actually had to kill their spokesperson. It proves the age-old philosophy that you have to be careful what you wish for

because Charlie just might bite your ad when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Thank you. Hello, Terry. This is a voice from your past. It's John, your old DuPont client. Heard you mention that print ad you wrote for us way back then. Under the Influence was produced by Pirate Toronto and New York. If you like our toe-tapping theme song, you can thank Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre for that. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners

who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. See you next week.