What has two wheels, unmatchable suction power, nearly 500 million views and one outraged audience? LG’s viral advertisement for a vacuum cleaner that’s what! If you haven’t seen the ad making the rounds on Facebook, here it is.
Despite this campaign being riddled with controversy, there is an undeniable genius behind it. The clickbait title lures people in. It plays on feminists protests against photoshop and peoples tendency to click on videos with attractive women. No, really – studies show people are likely to give a whooping $60NZD more to fundraisers using attractive women.
Once the masses have been lured in, they are hooked by how utterly bizarre the video is. Six seconds in a man is revealed to have some sort of tube attached to the model. Is she being blown up? Is she being sucked in? Audiences don’t know until the shocking reveal.
And once the truth comes out – quite literally, people are even disgusted or delighted. Either way, audiences are more likely to share than like this video on social media. This rare phenomenon is what we can credit how massive this simple commercial has become.
Another genius element of this commercial is how powerful it serves as a product demonstration. If you accidentally stumble on a TV during infomercial time, you have probably suffered being exposed to an awful vacuum cleaner infomercial. You know the kind – a bald man enthusiastically flinging the cleaner around, a mother claiming the vacuum cleaner saved her marriage.
While it is very important seeing how a vacuum cleaner operates before you buy it, I’d assume 98% of the population doesn’t care for it. They’d rather buy a vacuum cleaner and see for themselves than watch a five minute informercial with people cleaning their already spotless houses.
Whereas in this commercial, you would happily watch a vacuum cleaner in action. Even though it does not give you any of the specs, it has left an impression in your mind. And that impression might just be the difference between a loss and a sale.