John Reid, the CEO of AbbeyMoor Medical in Parkers Prairie, admits that he doesn't have a very large advertising budget. Which can be problematic since AbbeyMoor's signature product, The Spanner, doesn't exactly carry the same brand cache as say, Spam.
The Spanner, you see, is a stent that holds open the urethra, allowing men with enlarged prostates to more easily urinate. Not exactly the sort of thing people will discuss over dinner, or anywhere else for that matter, but nonetheless a serious medical problem.
Companies like AbbeyMoor thus face a conundrum, how to discuss an uncomfortable issue that makes people either giggle or gag.
Reid's solution: hire a couple of comedians to pitch The Spanner on YouTube and then watch the video go viral. For less than $10,000, AbbeyMoor tapped Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, self proclaimed "internetainers" from North Carolina to create a "fake" commercial about the product.
In the nearly four minute video, Rusty Barefoot, Sr. and Larnold Jernigan, Sr, played by McLaughlin and Neal, try to make a commercial about The Spanner but can't quite get through a few seconds of taping without screwing up, much to the annoyance of an unseen director.
The best part of the video comes at the end, when both men helpfully offer some slogans including: "The Spanner: say goodbye to weak stream, hello to a laser beam," The Spanner: Pee like a race horse," and "The Spanner: What's that noise? That's me peeing."
Since debuting August 10, the video has attracted over 60,000 views, mostly from people age 13 to 24. Not exactly the age demographic AbbeyMoor is looking for. However, The Spanner's website has attracted around 17,000 visitors, compared to the normal 100 visitors it normally gets. The company is also getting phone calls from patients and physicans.
That suggests the video is attracting two waves of people: the normally young YouTube crowd who finds it funny but then refer the video to people who actually need the product.
