Will it blend?
If there was a “show, don’t tell” marketing award, Blendtec’s “Will it blend” campaign would win, blades down. It’s been around since late 2006, but remains constantly fresh, thanks to the seemingly inexhaustable things to blend.
Here’s how it works: In each clip, the company’s founder, Tom Dickson, attempts to blend various items in order to show off the power of his blender. These items range from the inedible (credit cards, golf balls, hockey pucks, spam) to the unbelievable (iPhone, an episode that made me tear up a little). Each episode is classified as safe or unsafe (Try this at home vs. Don’t try this at home). I don’t have to tell you which episodes are more fun to watch.
I haven’t personally had the chance to test drive a Blendtec blender, but recently had the vicarious thrill of seeing one in use in a restaurant and got mighty excited. “That’s the blender from the internet!” I said, or something equally obvious.
Is it a good thing that I see a product and immediately think about its marketing efforts and not its product attributes? I’m not sure that is, but given that the campaign focuses so tightly on the product’s core function — blending the heck out of whatever you put in it — the message, for me, at least, remains intact.
Blend on, Mr. Dickson, blend on.
