Will It Yawn?

Speaking of viruses, er, viral... 12,697 views since March for Hotsy’s pressure washer with Courageous Carl Payne. I think we need a new word to describe a viral that the brand also wants to use as a commercial, and vice versa. Virercial? Coviral? Anyway, two words come to mind now whenever I see heavy tools or industrial products trying for some sort of consumer appeal: Blendtec. Okay, one word. Scientists in coats in labs in real fake scenarios is played out. People want real scientists in labs with real scenarios. Hello MythBusters. Barring that, Letterman and Jackass showed that just crashing into shit or dropping everyday stuff off a roof works too.

Bottom line: Don’t. Fake. The. Result.

At least not poorly. It’s not even that people *want* a certain type of clip, you just don’t have to work so hard to entertain them. Look at the views on their other clips. Like an English Leather Twitter profile, it’s not pretty. Many brands look at the finished product of a Blendtec and think they can replicate the magic. But there’s no magic there. Look past the lab coats and see what they really do: Destroy popular things that people hate—for real. So now you tap into that vibe people have who hate iAnything, and you’ve become their friend. You haven’t undermined the premise of what your product does because, well, it blended what we said it would.

Hotsy ruins its premise though. A pressure washer strong enough to take a guy off a bike now looks wimpy when removing goop of the same actor. If you’re going to parody a genre, make sure you make it work. I’m surprised in this me too viral atmosphere of late that more companies don’t try a Will It (insert action) knock-off more often. Hotsy’s Will It Come Off? Cue kittens stuck in a tree.

What. I was just trying to help. Think of the views people. The views.