Recently readers of Digg have been enjoying the Will It Blend? channel on YouTube. After watching an entire Extra Value Meal, some hockey pucks, and a rake handle (!) demolished by the BlendTec Total Blender, I was hooked. It's back to the future. We're back to the days of product demonstration. And more than 800,000 people have watched marbles (above) being blended by host Tom Dickson (who I think might also be the company's founder).
This makes me think of Russell Davies's observation that media budgets will begin to approach zero in the future. Instead of buying infomercial spots, BlendTec is finding people online on YouTube and driving them to their website where they can subscribe to an RSS feed of blending videos. What you need is compelling (if sometimes disgusting, in this case) content.
The formula is perfect for parody: the Herb Alpert 70's horn track, the earnest man in safety goggles and white coat, and the immortal line: "Will it blend? That is the question." The good-natured spoofs have already started. Let's put culture on "smoothie" for about a month and see how BlendTec does.
