Butterfingers, Balloons and Hoaxes

First there was the news that actor, Seth Green was mugged in a parking lot. The news media conveniently had this security camera video of the “crime”. Then there was this video that showed him freaking out after he was mugged.

The mugging story was picked up by news outlets and the “freak-out” video spread like H1N1 on YouTube. And then, we were let in on the hoax. Seems that Butterfinger has payed Green to pimp its candy bar at DudeWheresMyBar.com.

Ah, the good old hoax in advertising plan. This time though, Butterfinger and Green were smart in letting us believe, at least for a short time, that this was real. Over the last few days, the videos have been annotated on YouTube with links to the campaign, where you can help Seth Green find his stolen Butterfinger Bar.

I am a fan of this campaign for a number of reasons.

1. A good hoax where tax payers don’t pay the price. Instead of worrying about the safety of a six year old boy named Falcon in a balloon, getting mugged isn’t as severe as falling 8,000 feet. I took the bait on this one.

2. Would we be talking about a Butterfinger campaign if this hadn’t happened?

3. Would the site be getting as much traffic, would people be spreading the information like they have? Not likely.

4. Cuts through the clutter. How many other candy bar campaigns are currently starving (pun intended) for attention like this?

5. Plays off of the well known slogan “Don’t lay a finger on my butterfinger.” Brilliant!

While this campaign is strong, the real story here is that most companies don’t take these kinds of chances. Content to sit back and hope people care for the sake of caring. Those days are over and campaigns like this one rise to the top. You want to eat a Butterfinger right now, don’t you? Effective.

Too bad for Butterfinger and for Seth Green that this hoax happened at the same time of one of the world’s greatest hoaxes…ALLEGEDLY. And about that, the Balloon Boy could have really capitalized by talking to ReMax, perhaps used their hot air balloon logo, or better yet, they could have talked to me about Highlight Midwest.