WillItKillIt.com offers videos of water filters filtering dirty water
Will It Kill It is a viral marketing campaign consisting of one to two minute infomercials demonstrating the All Natural Air line of water filters, specifically the Water Purifier 3. The campaign started in late 2007, loosely inspired by the Will it Blend? viral videos. Both are examples of how viral marketing has changed the advertising market in the twenty-first century.
History
Will It Kill It started in late 2007, and owes its marketing style to other viral marketing campaigns, such as “Will It Blend?” The campaign was orchestrated by Jason Dailey and Anthony Taylor at the behest of Daily Enterprises LLC and All Natural Air LLC.
Content
The first four viral videos feature different household products being filtered through the Water Purifier 3.
- Episode 1: Coca Cola.
- Episode 2: Milk of Magnesium.
- Episode 3: Spaghetti-O's.
- Episode 4: Blue Powerade.
- Episode 5: Lead paint.
More episodes are currently in production.
The household products are used to contaminate otherwise clear tap water. The host of the show uses the water purifier to filter out the contamination, yielding a clear, drinkable glass of water at the end of each episode.
Water purifiers generally claim to be able to filter out common hazardous materials in drinking water from the tap. For example, Brita has a model that filters out particles of lead, chlorine, asbestos, and turbidity. The Water Purifier 3 uses the same processes of Ultraviolet Light Exposure and Carbon Filtration that water bottling plants use, without the bulky containers.
Will It Kill It uses things like Coca Cola or Powerade as analogs for dangerous chemicals. Yes, it may be impressive that the Water Purifier 3 can filter out Coca-Cola, but it is meant only to be an analogy of the things that are actually in every day tap water--things people desperately don't want to drink.
Indeed, visitors to the website can suggest future contaminants via e. mail.
Structure
Every episode consists of three segments. In the first segment, the host, Gus Watkins, introduces the product and classifies it as “Nasty.” Typically, Gus will read off the ingredients list before making his declaration, indicating that unnatural, human-made, synthetic products add to the nastiness. WillItKillIt.com operates on the assumption that natural is better, both for health and for taste.
In the second segment of each episode, Gus announces that the product must be “purified,” and puts the “Nasty” product into the water purifier, accompanied by upbeat techno music. This segment shows the actual filtration process and is easily the longest part of each episode. The water goes through three tubes. The first tube is obviously colored with the contaminant (for example, Spaghetti-O's colors the water orange). The second tube, where the water is exposed to a strong, UV light, features slightly less of the contaminant color. By the time the water gets to the third tube, it is almost completely clear.
The third segment of each episode involves Gus announcing the water as purified "it killed it!", and pouring the water into a stylized wine glass before drinking it. This process is followed throughout all of the episodes.
Host
The host of the episodes, Gus Watkins, is a Minneapolis-based musician and actor. He has acted for the stage and in short films, and has released two albums. Watkins was hired to simply produce the infomercial episodes, but the director of photography suggested he audition; hence, he landed the role.
In the episodes, Gus plays an over-the-top host, who finds most of today's commercial products to be “nasty.”
As an example of viral marketing
Will It Kill It has been a moderately successful marketing campaign. It has been reviewed on such sites as StumbleUpon.com, and yields six pages of search results on google.
Some marketing campaigns get very large very quickly; for example Will It Blend? made appearances in such high profile places as the Super Bowl. But one could argue that such a high degree of publicity defeats the point of a subtle, viral marketing campaign.
The videos make heavy use of video-sharing websites and communities, like YouTube and Ebaum’s World to spread their messages and gain viewers. Unlike commercials, which pay for screening time on television, viral marketing campaigns rely on viewers to actively search out their products, and so entertainment factor is key if the campaign is to be successfully integrated into social networks. Thus, it is not surprising to find ‘’’Will It Kill It’’’ on websites like MySpace, emphasizing the social aspects of the campaign.
Impact
The ‘’Will It Kill It’’ videos have been watched by thousands of people at websites like YouTube and Ebaum’s World. The Coca-Cola episode was the 48th most watched science video at Revver Online. In addition, the line of videos qualified as Metacafe Producers Rewards Candidates.
References
External links
- Air
- Alternative Health
- Avian Bird Flu
- Bacteria
- Big Pharma
- Blue Powerade
- Bottling Plants
- Catalytic
- Children's Health
- China
- Cigarettes
- Coca Cola
- Coli
- Cuervo Gold
- Filter
- Fresh
- Germs
- HVAC System
- Hand Hygiene
- Healthy
- Ionization
- It
- Kill
- Killit
- Kills
- Lead-based Paint
- Living Water
- MRSA
- Mersa E
- Milk Of Magnesia
- Mursa
- Nano Technology
- Nasa
- Nasty-free
- Natural
- Ozone
- Pollution
- Purifier
- RCI
- Radiant
- Salmonella
- Self Cleaning
- Silver
- Solution
- Space Age
- Spaghettios
- Two Buck Chuck
- Viruses
- Water
- Will
- Willit