A screening for colon cancer may catch a life-threatening problem before it has a chance to take hold. Or it might find an iPhone embedded in your gastrointestinal tract.
Both of those messages –- one deadly serious, the other an orchestrated prank –- come across in a new video for the nonprofit Colon Cancer Alliance, which stars YouTube comedian Jack Vale. Posing as a post-op supervisor at a Beverly Hills surgery center, Vale tells groggy, half-sedated patients about weird household objects located in their colons.
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He even trots out some (fake) x-rays to show them VHS tapes, stuffed animals and Three’s Company collector cards that were “found” during their colonoscopies.
The patients’ fuzzy, outraged, giggly reactions are YouTube gold, in a David After Dentist kind of way.
The video, launching on Monday, comes from Los Angeles-based Contagious, a new creative, production and distribution firm that has already made a name for itself working on projects like "Kobe vs. Messi 2: The Selfie Showdown" for Turkish Airlines and "Girls Don’t Poop for Poo Pourri" (named one of YouTube's top five ads of 2013).
Collaborating with cause branding and marketing company CK&D, the team at Contagious out to make a video for the Colon Cancer Alliance with high passalong potential.
“Colon cancer isn’t as sexy as other cancers, and the alliance was struggling to get its message out,” said Tim Staples, one of the three Contagious founders along with Oscar-winning filmmaker Nick Reed and new media entrepreneur Cameron Manwaring. “We wanted to do something fun and share-worthy.”
They considered, but dismissed, using the alliance’s 15-foot inflatable colon as part of the video. While that might have scored some laughs, as it likely has at health fairs and other events, Contagious executives decided to tap Vale and a hidden camera format. (Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in America, but largely preventable with appropriate screening.)
Tthe Contagious crew asked colonoscopy patients to sign a waiver ahead of time for a post-op interview (subject: undisclosed). Even with that teaser, woozy patients didn’t spot the prank as Vale tried to convince them of the toy race cars and keys hiding in their innards.
Prankvertising (also sometimes known as shockvertising) has caught on among Hollywood film studios, soda companies and other brands. Los Angeles creative shop thinkmodo caused a stir with videos for the horror flicks Devil’s Dueand Carrie.
But such tactics aren’t well-trod territory for a mainstream public service campaign or the healthcare field. The Colon Cancer Alliance was willing to try something different and gave the agencies free reign, hoping to spread the word about the preventable but still prevalent form of cancer, Staples said.
The assignment was right up Contagious’ alley. The firm has already created some 70 brand-centric YouTube videos that have snagged more than 1 million views each. Contagious conceptualizes and produces videos exclusively for YouTube and then seeds them with a network of bloggers, influencers and media.
“Since we believe YouTube is the engagement platform of the future for brands, we wanted to put our stake in ground and be the first full-service agency focusing exclusively on that platform,” said Staples, a former Omnicom advertising executive.
“You have to provide value to the consumer with content that’s inherently sharable,” Staples added. “You want them to interact and share the content and become brand ambassadors and spread that message.”
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