TipEx's clever, raunchy YouTube ad

TipEx (a Commonwealth analogue for Wite-Out and other correction-tape products) has an ingenious and engaging YouTube marketing campaign: a video called "NSFW: A hunter shoots a bear," branches off into a kind of video-text-adventure, where you are invited to type verbs into a box and see what the bear and the hunter do with one another (you can get funny results out of "fuck," of course, and also "gets high with" and "dances" -- I'm sure there's more). It's a kind of next-generation Subservient Chicken, and the (no doubt blisteringly expensive) creative reworking of YouTube's familiar user-interface makes it even more click-trancey than its forebears.

This is how to use YouTube to sell a product. (Thanks, Copyranter!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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aolson

“gets drunk with” is the best one I’ve seen yet.
Angstrom

“drinks” is disturbing !
“finds” is entertaining
“is” also funny
“smurfs” is not what I was expecting
“smokes” is smokey
“paints”
“wrestles”

I shall go and buy some of this bear removal cream immediately. Whatever it is called.
Xanthippas

Subservient chicken? It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure!

(Some of you kids might be too young for that reference…)
apreacher

type in “votes for” to see tipp-ex’s scathing indictment of modern-day democracy.

also “cons” returned something interesting, he must be running a long con.

sad to see “reuscitates” and “circumcises” didn’t make the cut.
Griffin

Try “erases”
apreacher

“prays for”, apparently the hunter belongs to the cult of dionysus.
thefuture

For some weird reason, the first one I tried was “eats a bear”, and it’s awesome that they actually have a video for that.
AaronA1C

“sleeps”
Felton / Moderator

“wrestles”
“paints”
“mows with”
Anonymous

“eats” is kinda disturbing LOL
AaronA1C

Oops, forgot “drives”
apreacher

glad to see tipp-ex doesn’t recognize a difference between “marries” and “gay marries”.
- Anonymous
  
  “buys” is apparently the same as “goes shopping with”. Strange.
AaronA1C

“calls” too.
aolson

Oh dear… “farts”
ben

feeds == cooks
Anonymous

combine that with the ELIZA thing – “is it important to you that the bear is fondled?”
Anonymous

Actually enter “shoots” in the box and be prepared for a duel.
Sxe

“plays games with”

“pretends to be” = “becomes”

“can has”
facetedjewel

Try the following key words: films, high five, soccer, teases, Michael Jackson, meets, becomes, funk, marries,fart,drunk,dances with, mows lawn, tickles, erases, smokes weed, moons, circus act, burps, phones, fishes, paints, plays music, plays games, pisses with, riding, eating, wrestling, hugging, shoots, sleeps cooks, brushes teeth, pgoes shopping, watches TV,plays house. There may be some repeats.
PaulMorel

awesome, just awesome.

Who are the geniuses who came up with this?
anomaly69

It would be a lot more funny except for the jerk move of ramping the volume way up. And of course the reaction to move the volume slider doesn’t have effect so you’re left scrambling to find a way to turn it down.

My solution was to close the window completely and never go back. You jerk me around like that and you lose me forever.
sergeirichard

Sorry, but the Inner Pedant can’t let this one go. Tipp-Ex isn’t a “Commonwealth analogue for Wite-Out…” For a start, it’s German!

And Commonwealth is quite wrong if used to mean “English-speaking countries that aren’t America” – the inference that there’s a single Commonwealth market more misleading still. Tipp-Ex is the leading correction fluid in the EU market.

Incidentally, the original Tipp-Ex was a typing correction paper – kind of like carbon paper but white. You’d put it over a mistyped letter, backspace and then re-type the wrong letter to vanish it. Only later did they start making this analog of Wite-Out / Liquid Paper.
turn_self_off

This belongs in the archive just to make sure its kept around for future generations to enjoy.
hershmire

How’s this for stupid: You can’t click on the Tipp-Ex icon to visit a product page. I’m still not sure what exactly the product does, which is an advertising fail. Cool idea, though.

/Plus, not “Hunter builds a bear”
Mike

“hates” has not been listed yet.
- Xopher
  
  Possibly because it doesn’t do anything. You get the “no can do” message.
oxrs

That WAS fun. “Tipp-ex” was actually the first one I thought of, but that might be because I went in expecting the product and everything. I see a trend, but of course it will just be low quality, pale imitations and we won’t get anything original for a few years.
Cory (a different one)

That’s funny, reminds me of Burger King’s subservient chicken:

http://www.bk.com/en/us/campaigns/subservient-chicken.html
Anonymous

Haha, the video for “blows” is quite fun as well :)
jonathan_v

the content is pulled in from an iframe here: http://bit.ly/dDrwMU

i’m guessing they just paid youtube to embed the iframe for that link — there’s no real youtube integration other than replacing a standard page with that.

the entire ‘youtube’ looking area is really just a single flash file.
PlayPennies

I put this in the submitterator a few hours ago… :)
mattofdoom

First thing that sprung to mind was “is”.
- ironix
  
  Ok, that one has to be my favourite.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  As we say in the subculture, woof.
Anonymous

me loves “plays football with”
Xopher

I like how they handle the ones they can’t do. A fun toy.
pjcamp

Eats is good. Drinks is good. So is pisses on. Photographs is boring.

Tried “gives birth to” and got back something surreal.
Anonymous

try “cleans” its pretty cool
Talia

Gotta admit, I love it. Fantastic advertising move.

I don’t particularly have any need of that product now but I will likely remember the company for some time to come as those people who kept me entertained of an evening. :)

“sings to” is the only one I’ve “discovered” (as in not yet posted here) so far.
Talia

Oh, and Hugs and Snuggles are the same. :p
Xopher

After you click Don’t Shoot The Bear, try just waiting.
Xopher

“moons” and “strikes” are pretty good.
revdru

Some fun ones: cuts, becomes, cares about, dances with, brushes, plays, hangs out with.

I’m not sure why I like this so much.
Quothz

Not bad! Some others that work: “punches”, “shits”, “shoots”, “plays with”, “plays soccer with”, “teases”, “jumps”, and “makes love to”. No, that last one isn’t the same as “fucks”.

Not too surprisingly, “plays football with” is the same as soccer. “Plays chess with”, more surprisingly, also gives that result. “Plays Candyland with” is the same as “Plays with”, tho’.
Xopher

“Listens” and “listens to” are different!
- Felton / Moderator
  
  But “listens to” is the same as “can haz.” Go figure.
Felton / Moderator

“Sleeps with” is not the same as “has sex with,” by the way.
Felton / Moderator

“shakes hands with”

“high fives”
Felton / Moderator

“watches TV with”
Anonymous

“Tickles” is pretty amusing
Xopher

“Makes love to” is the same as “kisses” and “marries.”

“Feeds” is pretty fun too.
Felton / Moderator

“is bitten by”
Felton / Moderator

“showers with”