Cash Cows & Car Crashes

Ford struck gold when they decided to get Matthew McConaughey to parody himself. Their recent spots for Lincoln feel like deleted scenes from The Wolf of Wall Street and have spiked in popularity. Sales continued to soar 25% in October after Jim Carrey’s Saturday Night Live parody.

This raises the question, “why does it work?” It’s ridiculous but endearing and it hits a bunch of elements to make a perfect parody. A typical joke sets up the perceiver to make a predication of a likely outcome based on their set of expectations. When the punch line violates their expectations in an interesting way the perceiver forms a new cognitive connection and is rewarded with a pleasurable sensation. If someone doesn’t get it, it’s because they can’t draw a connection and become frustrated or they reject it because they feel offended in some way.

Interesting twist on the familiar = yay.
Nonsensical or unsettling wrong turn = nay.

The Matthew McConaughey spot works because it plays off familiar McConaughey and makes it even more interesting. As bizarre as it is, it doesn’t seem far off from his norm. The Carrey reenactment keeps the ball rolling because it’s more Matthew McConaughey on a whole nother level. Someone leaving a 5-minute cow conversation is primed for a hit and run.

But what happens when the formula is tried without caution? ASUS tried to jest pop culture in 2011 with a series of painful Big Bang Theory themed ads promoting the Eee Pad Transformer. The first Eee Pad Story spot portrays the characters as tech illiterate and they all have something majorly off about them. Worst of all, instead of showing how the product was useful, they forced it into a lame, slapstick feature spot. It was a train wreck because it was eerily off for fans of the show they were trying to target and they disrespected their USP.

Jumping on trending media is a must in advertising. Oreo remains a great example of how to respond after their Super Bowl blackout tweet went viral. It was a smart way to include Oreo in the conversation and uses the same formula that made the Lincoln spots successful. When a brand responds with something relevant and interesting, people enjoy it.