A few weeks ago, the marketing geniuses at Hanesbrands Inc. established a beachhead on YouTube for their Playtex brand bras.You might wonder: Who the hell wants to watch commercials on YouTube?
Well, when those commercials feature curvy, half-naked womens cavorting and joking and talking ’bout their tits, the answer is: Plenty of people.
Exactly how many people is the question. There are eight videos on YouTube as part of Playtex’s multimillion-dollar “Girl Talk” campaign. Most of those videos have viewership numbers in the thousands or tens of thousands.
But one so-called “bloopers” video has allegedly been viewed 4 million times.
Yeah, right. Four million in about one month. Four million views and only 174 comments.
I’m sorry, but that’s a figure with no visible means of support. There must be some kind of shenanigans afoot. Can anyone hip me to the tricks of how YouTube viewership numbers get pumped up or inflated?
Four million views would constitute a cultural phenomenon. When “Chocolate Rain” racked up 4 million views, Tay Zonday got on “The Jimmy Kimmel Show” and CNN.
In any case, this campaign is a clever way to commercialize YouTube without pissing anybody off. Because women are like, “Hey, I wear bras too!” And dudes are like, “More breasteses please.”
It’s win-win.
Taking the cleverness a step further, Playtex is inviting real women to video themselves... and become unpaid spokesmodels in the “Girl Talk” campaign. Here’s what it says on Playtex’s YouTube channel:
“Do you have a funny Playtex bra moment or story you want to share? Upload your video to our Brastory ‘group’, and then vote on your favorites here – just click on the link below and you’re on your way! (limit videos to :30 max each, please? thanks)”
Hey... I’ve got a funny Playtex bra moment to share. But I don’t think they wanna hear about me getting caught jerking off at JC Penney’s.
P.S. My favorite Playtex “Girl Talk” girl is the Lauren-Ambrose-looking redheaded one (pictured above). You might be interested to know that she has nicknamed her breasts “Lacey” and “Casey”... because it “kinda rhymes and they’re kinda, you know, my friends.”
10 comments:
Oh please. Is that what's passing for poor man's pron theses days? Call me when they put videos of Calvin Klein boxer brief models on YouTube.
Oh, and did I read too fast or did UBM miss/skip the obvious "BoobTube" joke?
I hate Playtex.
L
Neptune: Somehow, I don't think Hanes could sell a lot of men's briefs with YouTube videos of half-naked guys talking about nicknames for their wang.
J.C. Penney's? Feh. Everybody knows that if you want to crank one off you go to American Apparel. They already got the literature, there, UBM. Tsk.
^ That's what I love about the Internet. You learn stuff. ;^D
Ok, I'll take the hit for using a vague "they".
How about, call me when CK puts videos of Calvin Klein boxer brief models on YouTube.
Or someone puts Michael Jordan's original Hanes boxer briefs ad on YouTube.
And I'm sure there's some marketing statistic out there somewhere that will claim what amazing percentage of men's undies are actually bought by women (wives, girlfriends, SOs, etc.)
me likey.
and yes, the Amaerican Apparrel ads are pretty hot, too... in a kind of low-rent, semi-sleazy, 1970s way (which is cool by me).
My associate calls American Apparel ads "kiddie porn" haha.
By the way, are you able to have fun and dance in a Playtex bra smaller than a double D? Just askin'
^ By the way, are you able to have fun and dance in a Playtex bra smaller than a double D? Just askin'
Hee hee!
Actually, I just came back from an Internet conference and I heard a way you could jack your views up like this. I have no idea if this is what Playtex did, because I'm not seeing it on their website, but it would work. If a company loads their video on YouTube and then embeds it on their corporate site, then every time people visit the company site, it pulls it from YouTube and counts as a view.
Playtex is spending millions of its Girl Talk campaign, so I have to imagine they've put some marketing muscle behind those YouTube views.
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