Can humor ads create buzz, and, more importantly, SELL? The Alltel ads are definitely generating buzz, both in the online and offline worlds. According to the WSJ article, Alltel Spoofs Itself in Online Ads, But Not Everyone Gets the Joke,

“In advertisements on hundreds of blogs, visitors are being encouraged to join a lawsuit against Alltel Corp. over a new discount-calling plan from the regional cellphone company. The plan, called My Circle, allows Alltel customers to designate up to 10 phone numbers that can be called for free, regardless of the cellphone carrier they’re affiliated with. ”

The article says that the ads are so good, that not everyone realizes that it is a spoof, and not an actual thing.

At the end, though, the abdurdity of the web site itself gives the joke away:
“While most of the ads play it relatively straight, the sites they link to are full of absurd details that give away the joke. Many of the ads feature Edward Maxwell Von Houten, a fictional attorney for the People Against My Circle Foundation, or PAMCF. The attorney’s earlier courtroom wins supposedly include lobbying for greater dress-sock elasticity and suing his mother’s obstetrician for giving him an “innie” belly button (“One day I calculated that over the course of my lifetime so far, I’d spent nearly 18 weeks cleaning lint out of my navel,” he writes on PAMCF’s Web site). He rails against My Circle, accusing Alltel of encouraging long, rambling calls among friends.”

Alltel ads seem to be generating blog posts and lots of Internet buzz for them. Can you come up with a humorous campaign to generate buzz for YOUR business?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 4th, 2006 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.