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A friend of mine gave me a small package wrapped in newspaper the other day, my Christmas present about a month late. I didn’t care because I wasn’t expecting anything, and was super-excited to unwrap two 16-oz. cans of Brawndo, “The Thirst Mutilator.”

If you know anything about Mike Judge’s film “Idiocracy” you can appreciate how amazing it is that this product exists in real life. One of the ongoing jokes in the movie is about a product called Brawndo, an electrolyte-laden energy drink that flows out of drinking fountains and has completely replaced water, even for watering plants. To quote the movie and the back of the can, “Brawndo’s got what plants crave! Brawndo’s got electrolytes. And that’s what plants crave. They crave elecrolytes. And that’s why plants crave Brawndo. Not water, like from the toilet.”

“Idiocracy” itself is somewhat of an underdog movie (having been snubbed by 20th Century Fox, the studio that created it) but it has since seen some success on DVD, at least in the circles I run in. The film follows a time-traveling Luke Wilson 500 years into the future, where humanity has devolved to a point that Wilson is the smartest man alive. Television shows have names like “Ow, my balls!”, courtrooms are basically run like episodes of Jerry Springer and corporations like Carl’s Jr.’s have slogans like “F*** you! I’m eating!” It is likely that the heavy parody of corporate culture is responsible for 20th Century Fox pulling all advertisements, movie trailers and press kits from the film and releasing it in only 125 theaters instead of the typical 2500-3000.

It was a movie that Internet nerds had been following and it just dropped off, eventually showing up on DVD about a year later. It is by no means a great movie, it’s awesomeness is also off-set by some heavy handed-narrative and weak acting. Nonetheless, it is a feel-good movie, full of small moments and details that will only continue to grow it’s cult status.

So how did this fictional product from a failed movie become a real product? Redux Beverages, the California beverage maker behind the scandalously named “Cocaine” energy drink that local newscasters were scaring grandmothers with when it was released, saw an opportunity to cash in on the cult following of the movie. In a press release for Brawndo, Redux explains the precedent set by Mike Judge’s earlier film “Office Space,” whereby Milton’s fixation on a red Swingline Stapler created such a demand for the product that Swingline actually started producing them.

Time magazine ran an article about the red stapler in August 2003: “Once the film was released, buyers began asking for the red stapler. But Swingline didn’t make it. ‘We concluded we really needed to put a red stapler on the market,’ says Bruce Neapole, Swingline’s president. He says Swingline continues to sell thousands each month of what it calls the Rio Red Stapler.”

In the same way that Swingline created a viable product with the red stapler, Redux has released Brawndo, hoping that it will appeal to fanatical consumers. It’s a weird case of reverse product placement where the products don’t exist at the time they become characters in a movie. This doesn’t happen very often and is a hard thing to predict, but it may be a trend to keep an eye on. It is especially impressive that Mike Judge has accomplished this twice in his last two films.

After Brawndo became a reality, viral marketing was the natural next step. Having recruited the voice of Mark Little, a writer for the Canadian sketch comedy group Picnicface, Brawndo’s advertisements essentially mimic the same style of Picnicface’s commercial for a fictional energy drink called Powerthirst.

The advertisement captures the ridiculousness of Judge’s future world, and quite frankly wins at being successful on the Internet, racking up about 300,000 YouTube views so far. Having downed a can of Brawndo in the course of writing this blog entry (see image above), I have to say it is an above-average tasting energy drink, though that isn’t saying much because most energy drinks are disgusting. At this point the appeal of Brawndo is mostly to people who have seen the film, and it’s unlikely that you’ll see a can unless you know someone who’s ordered it online. Redux is seeking distributors, however, so if you own a business do everyone a favor and order a couple of cases.

My apologies for the 3-week lull between entries. The holidays were here and I was busy being merry! I did, however, recently add a post about what makes a good blog entry that has to do with the content of your blog, rather than the structure and functionality. Anyways, back to business. Here’s tip #11 through 15 for marketing your blog.

For 1-5, click here.

For 6-10, click here.

11. Submit your blog to directories—This will provide more channels for new readers as well as build your credibility.

12. Submit to paid directories—Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW and JoeAnt are sites with high traffic and are great venues for attracting new readers. Submit to their paid directories with categories for blogs.

13. Build links—You can do this any number of ways, including finding suitable sites to link to you, adding a guest book or newsgroup, requesting links from other sites, etc.

14. Write a press release—Announce your blog to online and offline news sources to raise awareness. Optimize the content of online press releases for search engines to direct traffic to your blog via applicable search terms.

15. Request feedback and reviews—Ask people to talk about you. The best way to do this is to ask for their honest opinion. Reviews will provide links and expand the reach of an old-fashioned marking tool: word-of-mouth.

Australia is famous for many things, not the least of them being Vegemite, dingos and Nicole Kidman. But were you also aware that Australia has been a hot bed for some amazing beer commercials in the past decade?

TV ads are tricky beasts. Most of them are so banal and un-entertaining that viewers forget them as soon as he or she has returned to the scheduled programming. When a good ad does appear it can do amazing things. It can cut through the clutter, get circulated on YouTube and, in the best of situations, re-invigorate a brand, if not an entire industry. That is exactly what happened in Australia.

Back in 2005 there was Carlton’s “Big Ad”:

Then there was Toohey’s Xtra Dry:

And then Carlton retaliated with this:

And then Toohey answered with this:

I could list about about 10 other great Australian beer ads. I think these spots have three important elements that help distinguish themselves from the thousands of other TV commercials we see every day.

1. These ads tell a story. They aren’t your typical bikini-clad women frolicking in the snow. They draw viewers in with an interesting premise. They pique your curiosity.

2. The writers for these spots rewarded those who paid attention with a great ending and smart punchline.

3. You can almost feel how much fun these ads were to make. You can almost imagine the brainstorming sessions where writers and creative directors were (gasp!) having a great time coming up with these stories.

In summary:

1. Australian beer commercials rock.

2. People pay attention to a well-written story.

3. Advertising should be fun.

I ride the bus to work every day. It’s a good way to interact with the city and experience the advertising flora near the office. Admittedly that is not why I ride the bus (cheapskate) but overall the whole experience pays off. I was amused to notice last week that the Adult Swim billboard had changed in a peculiar way.

Adult Swim is the popular late night programming block on Cartoon Network that is aimed at young adults. The shows are generally pretty low budget in terms of animation, but the writing and subject matter more than makes up for the difference. Anyhow, there is a billboard on 3rd and Davis in downtown Portland that I walk past twice a day that has consistently featured ads for Adult Swim, and changes about once a month. Usually they are pretty great in that over-the-top bad sort of way—like the billboard with two lazy, regal looking tigers surrounded by an image of some colorful galaxy. It’s the same awkwardly self-aware aesthetic that makes sweaters of howling wolves nostalgically funny.

The billboard sometimes features actual shows but it seems like increasingly they are aiming for the quality I just mentioned. The latest installment is colorful painting depicting two horses in a meadow. It’s a pleasant sight, and certainly kitschy to the extreme but there are no words except for the simple “buy our dvds” and [happy holidays] in place of the standard [adult swim] logo. The only things that make it discernible are the stylized font and brackets used in the text [happy holidays] but more importantly, the fact that there has been an Adult Swim billboard there for as long as I can remember, which is probably less than a year (I haven’t worked in this neighborhood too long).

The whole situation reminds me of optical illusions where you stare at something for a while and when you look away you have some image burned into your eyeballs for a few seconds, according to the Internet these are called “after image illusions.” It’s seems like a risky move to go so lightly on the branding, but it certainly got my attention. But then again I am Adult Swim’s target market.

We’ve all heard the stories of employees not hiring smart, talented, aspiring college students due to their (gasp) inappropriate Facebook/Myspace accounts. Look out Gen Y, these stories are not fables or urban legends, but realities in the wonderful world of Web 2.0.

As I mentioned in my previous entry “Personal Branding 101,” we should think of ourselves as “Mini-corporations.” With the advent of social networks we have a unique chance to advertise our brand like never before. Think of entering into social sites as if your company is going public. If you were a public corporation you would strive to highlight your finest attributes while desensitizing your poor qualities.

With our professional and social lines blurring, managing your personal brand is more imperative then ever. You do not know who is looking at your page, so practicing common sense and checking your site often is key. Below is a list of advice as you strive to elevate your personal brand

1) If you use the sites to communicate your feelings and frustrations use caution. Don’t tell the world about your problems and sadness. Your sob stories should not be surfacing on the net. Do you really want to be the pathetic brand? Use an actual paper diary if you need to get things off your chest.

2) DELETE inappropriate messages and pictures. If you think, ‘wow my boss would be disappointed if he saw this,’ get rid of it. This doesn’t mean you can’t show pictures of you having fun and enjoying some drinks- in fact some organizations might think of you as a “stick in the mud” and “boring” if you don’t. Just don’t cross the line of being offensive and immature.

3) Set the controls to “private” so only people you know personally can access your account. Keep in mind, however, that just because your boss isn’t a “friend” doesn’t mean there aren’t ways for him or her to see your account

4) Balance your site. Don’t add a bunch of graphics, application and pictures just because you know how. It makes your site look cheap and gaudy. Think when you create a Power Point Presentation. Chances are you refrain from adding most graphics, colors and transition slides because it is unappealing.

5) Users can become too active by posting thousands of pictures, belonging to numerous groups and adding many applications. This intense amount of participation gives the impression that you have nothing better to do then play on social networks.

6) Have fun, connect, be cautions, balance and enjoy!

Unless I’m heading out on a date (so, rarely), Charles Shaw seems to be the wine of choice at my household. There’s just something about being able to get tipsy off one $3 purchase that just makes you feel good. At least sort of…

Growing up the daughter of the ultimate locavore, and now being a pretty adamant one myself, it’s hard for me to justify buying some cheap (gasp!) California wine—especially when the Willamette Valley is home to some of the greatest vineyards in the country. But then I do end up buying it because I don’t have a lot of extra cash just lying around ready to be drunk up.

AdWeek recently reported that 26 percent of 21-to-30-year-olds spend their alcoholic beverage budget on wine. And, it’s just a fact of life, but 21-to-30-somethings really know how to take down the alcohol, in fact, they love it so much they make games up to consume more, meet for happy hours regularly, and post funny pictures on Facebook of their friends completely in the throes of it.

So, yes, while you may not call these youngsters the most desirable of all customers, the fact of the matter is that they have some disposable income and, as we’ve discussed, they like to imbibe.

Trouble is, some of these vineyards make it difficult for young people to get involved with the wine industry. We grew up in a time of designated drivers, and when only a few folks want to head out, this can cause a problem. We also don’t want to pay any ridiculous tasting fee (anything over $10-15 accounts for that), and being asked to be in the Cellars Club seems like a lofty proposition for those of us still paying off school and our car.

So, wineries, it’s time to reach us—I mean, who are you going to sell all those vintage wines to 20 years from now?

Some wineries have already started there own blogs, and that is a great step in the right direction, but what they really need to do is get out there. Just like in online PR, participation is KEY. Plan some events at the winery that are 30-and-under and include a reduced tasting fee and perhaps some snacks, and then shuttle people to and fro. Better yet, hire a band and set up an event somewhere in a large city where people can easily get home with a cab (or, more likely, public transportation—we are CHEAP), then focus only on them.

When those bottles are in front of me, I’m enjoying my time, and they are only around $20, I usually find myself buying a few. Just ask Sokol Blosser, I certainly didn’t let them down on my Thanksgiving-day wine trip.

As AdWeek also says about this age group, “Though few claim to be knowledgeable about wine, 34 percent are ‘interested in learning more.’” Time for some innovative marketing!