VIDEO: The latest Wally Award for Excellence in Advertising

Yesterday, Mrs Walt came home with a brand new Blendtec blender. It's very powerful. It has already shredded 700 of Walt's hard-earned dollars. "Why," I enquired, "would you spend that kind of money on a blender, when you could have got one for a hundred bucks or so?" 

"My dear Walt," she answered sweetly, "this one is recommended by Laura Vitale! You like Laura, don't you?" Having watched Laura in the Kitchen more than once... more than once... I could only answer in the affirmative. 

"Besides," she added, "it'll blend anything! Haven't you seen the videos?" I had to admit that I had not, with the result that I as introduced to the "Will It Blend?" series, starring Blendtec blenders and the company's founder, Tom Dickson. These have been on YouTube since October 2006, but being a man, I hadn't noticed. Here's a sample.

 

Did you like that? I did, so much so that I hereby award Blendtec and Mr Dickson the coveted Wally Award for Excellence in Advertising for... well, let's say 2020, since we already gave out an award for 2021 for a commercial which, sadly, has been removed from YouTube. 

In his recommendable book The Age of Persuasion (Knopf Canada 2009) Canadian marketing guru Terry O'Reilly calls Mr Dickson "a graduate (with honours) of the 'Mister Robers' school of TV demeanour). "What sets 'Will It Blend?' apart", Mr O'Reilly writes, "is its style and packaging.

"Dickson's deliciously dry and slightly stiff presentatin is exactly what makes the videos work. Each episode also contains a surprise and is authentic -- both hall marks of a great ad campaign. The viewer is left with little doubt that the Blendtec blender can actually grind up a Wii remote, a picket sign, a baseball, or a fifteen-foot garden hose -- and it can't hurt to know this, given that a high-end Blendtgec might run you to $800."

Worked with Mrs Walt. Thanks, Tom.