Donuts, Comedy and Marketing
Or: How a joke and a little creativity brought national attention to a Chicago donut shop.
It was back in 2011 when a group of 20 or so strangers (myself included) wandered into a room at Chicago’s Second City for Improv Level A. Little did we know how close we would all become in the following year. Learning basic principles like “Yes, and…” and how to play the High-Low dynamic. This story is about one of those people, Jon Becker and how he used some nerdy comedy skills in his workplace to create unintended free advertising.
Jon was one of the really funny ones in our class. A San Francisco native, his changing attire gave way to a rotating nickname. For example, if he showed up in a stocking cap and Carhartt jacket, he was Fisherman Jon for the day. Whenever we needed an example during a scene for the name of a movie, he would shout “Dogs, Dogs, Dogs” without even thinking. Ah the good old days of 2011.
Fast forward April 24th, 2014.
Jon, now an employee at Stan’s Donuts was given access to the register system. Little did Jon know, but one simple joke would bring Mitch Hedburg back into the news, Jon into the spotlight and tons of free advertising for Stan’s Donuts. If you don’t know the joke (or where this is going) check out the original joke and the receipt:
Jon decided to post the receipt to Instagram and Facebook where it got some respectable love. Then later that day, Jon posted to Reddit. Then the internet went nuts. In barely a day, the photo became the top story on Reddit with 3,928 upvotes. Shortly there after the International Business Times, Huffington Post, Yahoo News and ABC News came calling to report the story.
I didn’t think anything would come of it, and when I posted it to reddit I was really surprised at the response.
When I reached out to Jon he seemed very taken back by the entire experience, “I don’t know what to say about the whole thing. I did it as a slightly subversive joke, knowing there was a risk of offending someone. I didn’t think anything would come of it, and when I posted it to reddit I was really surprised at the response. I’ve since heard that I turned a lot of people on to Mitch Hedberg, which is great, and a handful of people have emailed Stan’s to tell my bosses that they appreciate a place that allows an employee to have a sense of humor.”
Now within two days, Stan’s Donuts now has thousands of dollars of national media attention. As for how this will translate into moving product, remains to be seen. But if you ask me, having the brilliant comedic mind of Jon Becker on the staff has certainly helped get their name out there. If you’d like to see Jon’s work, check out his blog: http://jonbecker.tumblr.com. If you’d like to hire him to be a writer on your Saturday night comedy show (ahem Lorne) I’m sure he’d bring some fresh points of view.
I think Jon said it best, “The lesson is something like, hey, don’t take yourself too seriously and also, you gotta look up Mitch Hedberg, bro.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a donut to enjoy and standup to listen to.
