Will It Blend? is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender . In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various items in order to show off the power of his blender. Dickson started this marketing campaign after doing a blending attempt with a box of matches.
Structure
At some point during the blending process, a subtitle appears stating whether or not the particular items are safe to blend at home. Golf balls, marbles, cell phones and cubic zirconia, for example, are not safe. These show the subtitle "Don't try this at home". On the other hand, credit cards, ice, and a McDonald's Extra Value Meal are safe to blend. These show the subtitle "Please try this at home." While the item is being blended Dickson is smiling and waiting for the process to end. When it does, Dickson frequently warns viewers not to breathe the smoke or dust that results when blending unsafe items by saying "Don't breathe this!", as it could cause serious conditions such as silicosis. At the end of each video, the contents are emptied out onto a work top, at which point the subtitle "Yes, it blends!" appears.
One of the most famous Will it Blend? is the "cochicken", which is half of a chicken (cooked, usually rotisserie) blended with 12 fluid ounces of Coca-Cola (without the can). Although the show's example was blended with the bones (and thus was disclaimed as unsafe to eat), a boneless version was made on NBC's Today and served to Meredith Vieira.
Popular fan requests for the show include blending either another blender or a crowbar. It is highly unlikely that either would blend, and this probably means that neither would even be attempted, because of the nature and purpose of the show—marketing Blendtec products. A demonstration video featuring the anticipated crowbar was interrupted by a cell phone, to which Dickson responds by stuffing the entire crew's cell phones into the blender and blending them instead. The show has attempted to blend increasingly unlikely items, such as a six foot garden rake and a sealed can of soda.
On the April 3 , 2007 episode, Dickson placed a camcorder in the blender, giving viewers a first-person look inside the container while being blended. Shortly afterwards, the production team, Kels Goodman and Ray Hansen, attempted to return what was left of the camcorder to Best Buy, with no success.
On the July 10 , 2007 episode, an iPhone played the video intro before being blended. The resulting remains of the iPhone (which consist of powder and a mangled metal frame), along with a brand new Blendtec blender and a DVD compilation of the commercials, were placed for bidding on eBay and sold at $901 USD (which was given to charity). Dickson has done the same with an iPhone 3G on the July 11 , 2008 episode and set up a charitable auction on eBay again, along with a "Will It Blend" t-shirt, an autographed jar (holding the blended remains of the phone), the box the iPhone comes in (including the earphones) and a brand new Blendtec Total Blender.
One of the most extreme episodes featured Dickson placing six Bic lighters in the blender. In a matter of seconds, the mixture of butane, metal and plastic ignited into a ball of fire inside the container. The scene was exaggerated by the addition of nuclear explosion film footage before one of the production crew sprayed a fire extinguisher on the still-operating blender.
Some episodes are produced to coincide with certain events. For example, three episodes aired during the weekend of Super Bowl XLI. Because of trademark restrictions, the words "Super Bowl" were substituted with other words such as "Super Sunday," "The Big Game" or "That Last Football Game." The first episode had Dickson blend a smoothie out of salsa, tortilla chips, Buffalo wings and some Budweiser. The second and third episodes used two blenders to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl by blending miniature helmets (AFC vs. NFC) and foam footballs (Indianapolis Colts vs. Chicago Bears). To coincide with the release of the film Transformers , Dickson blended the Transformers toys Bumblebee and Swindle before challenging two of his grandchildren to transform the remains. When Dickson learned that The Beach Boys did not win Esquire Magazine' s 2007 Esky Award, he blended the trophy. He also blended the music/rhythm video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock after finding no Beach Boys in it, and the first-person shooter Halo 3 after two of his grandchildren beat him in a multiplayer game. To celebrate the release of Weezer's 2008 album, Dickson blended a copy of the CD with a can of pork and beans (a reference to the album's first single, as Will It Blend? is among the internet memes referenced in the song). Dickson also blended the Wii Wheel after breaking it during a game of Mario Kart Wii, and a Grand Theft Auto IV disc because the 1968 Mustang GT 390 (like in Bullitt) was not included in the game.
Impact
The phrase Will it blend? has become an internet meme on sites such as Digg. Dickson has revealed that the campaign has been a great success for Blendtec:
The campaign took off almost instantly. We have definitely felt an impact in sales. Will it Blend has had an amazing impact to our commercial and our retail products.
Blendtec now sells Will It Blend? merchandise, including a spoof shirt with the slogan "Tom Dickson is my Homeboy".
Dickson has made many national television appearances, including NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 30 , 2007 , on which he blended a rake handle in mere seconds. Dickson also made his appearance in the History Channel series Modern Marvels . In the episode World's Strongest III aired March 6 , 2008 the show ends with a special Will it Blend to prove if he can blend the channel's longest running series (in the form of a portable MP3 player).
In April 2007, radio station KDRF (eD-FM) in Albuquerque, New Mexico enlisted Tom Dickson to do a Will It Blend? version to promote the radio station. The three 30-second commercials show different styles of music CDs being blended, showcasing the station's variety format.
In September 2007, the videos earned the second highest annual payout of about US$15000 from the video hosting service Revver.
In 2008, Will It Blend? was featured on a Dreyer's Dibs commercial. In the commercial, a girl holding a large lollipop tries some Dibs and wonders what will happen to lollipops when kids stop buying them in favor of the bite-sized ice cream treats. The next scene shows giant lollipops being used as an alternative to waxing a man's hairy back before Dickson blends them. A second version of the commercial has Dickson himself being waxed.
As far as awards, Will it Blend? has been nominated for the 2007 YouTube award for Best Series, winner of .Net Magazine's 2007 Viral Video campaign of the year and winner of the Bronze level Clio Award for Viral Video in 2008.
As of June 21, 2009, the Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 83,238,033 views (an average of 967,884 views per video) on YouTube.
List of episodes
- Marbles
- Rake Handle
- Chuck Norris and Bad guys (Some action figures are blended, but the Chuck Norris figure emerges unblended from the bad guys' dust)
- "Extra Value Meal" (a mixture of a Big Mac, fries and a milkshake)
- "Cochicken" (a mixture of Coca-Cola and chicken)
- Ice (Blended into snow)
- Golf balls
- Coke Can Smoothie (a mixture of a can of Coca-Cola and its contents and ice)
- Credit Cards
- The Movie (a mixture of a DVD, popping corn and a can of Coke)
- Pens
- Thanksgiving Dinner (Tom's toothless Uncle Floyd came over for dinner and Tom blended his serving of Thanksgiving dinner for him. He started with a turkey leg because Floyd preferred dark meat. Afterwards, he poured in a bowl of cranberries, and a slice of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream. Finally, he sprinkled in some salt and pepper for taste.)
- Bottled Beverage
- Tilapia -O- Matic (Tom places a frozen fish into the blender half filled with water and blends the fish)
- Oysters
- Crowbar (Does not blend crowbar, eventually just blends mobile phones.)
- 3 Hockey pucks
- Real-Time Compilation (Video made as a bet that no stop motion, mirrors, or other tricks were used to make the other videos. This video showed the blending of light bulbs, golf balls, and a rake handle. The light bulbs were blended in 11 seconds, the golf balls in 30 seconds, and the rake handle in 10 seconds.)
- iPod (Dickson blends an iPod.)
- Coffee Beans (Dickson shows that the blender can be used to grind coffee beans as opposed to a coffee grinder.)
- Nutcracker with nuts
- 53 Toy Cars (Dickson woke up having stepped on all the toy cars left out by his grandchildren, so he blended them all to teach them a lesson. This video showed the subtitle "Kids, Don't Try This At Home!")
- Christmas Dinner (Toothless Uncle Floyd from the Thanksgiving Dinner video was
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