Terry Tait: Office Linebacker

Okay. So we've all seen this and we've all laughed. But can you tell me which brand it's for?
So watch it now looking for any hint of Reebok. There's the symbols on his jersey, his necklace, and Reebok is embedded into the url at the end.

If I thought that the ad was actually trying to sell the brand I would say that the ad is not effective because the humor dominated it. But, I don't think that. I don't think they were trying to sell the brand directly through the ad.

They took advantage of the new age of technology. To see an ad, you don't have to wait for it to play in between programming segments on TV. You can plug it right into a search engine and watch as many times as you would like.

I remember when every one was showing each other this ad. My teachers were playing it in class, it was up on everyone's facebook stati, it was circulating via email threads.

They needed people to find them on the internet. They needed Reebok to pop up next to "office linebacker" in your google search results, hence the URL address at the end of the video. The message wasn't in the ad, the message is what you get later when you follow up on it. So, in this case, with this strategy, it's okay to use ridiculous amounts of humor. It has to be funny enough that you look for it again.  Reebok was definitely counting on this follow up for success.

A unique strategy. Props to Reebok.