How Bodyform's farting 'CEO' became a viral sensation

Our story last week on just how the "CEO" of sanitary towel firm Bodyform set one traumatised man straight on the truth about women's periods raised a few eyebrows among cynical Reg commentards. Just how, they wondered, did the company manage to respond to Richard Neill's Facebook post of 8 October... Hi, as a man I must ask …

[Lutin]

Re: Viral ad turns out to be viral ad shocker.

Well done you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Viral ad turns out to be viral ad shocker.

I'm more shocked and surprised Reg readers can't read and comprehend content

[Neil Barnes]

I've got a paragliding competition this weekend...

Do you think a box of these will help?

[Lester Haines]

Re: I've got a paragliding competition this weekend...

Give it a go, and report back...

[Mephistro]

Re: I've got a paragliding competition this weekend...

"Do you think a box of these will help?"

To be of any use, it would have to be a HUGE box. Why don't you just learn how to land your paraglide properly?

[NellyD]

Wrong hole Neil! Or maybe not. Do let us know how they work out for you old chap.

[ElNumbre]

Re: I've got a paragliding competition this weekend...

You could probably use them as elbow and knee pads.

[Martin Budden]

Re: I've got a paragliding competition this weekend...

Only if you get the ones with wings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I've got a paragliding competition this weekend...

They can be of a big help - just tape a whole heap of them around your head.

[Jonathan Walsh]

"social amplification" - shoot me now!

[damien morton]

what do we think "managing social amplification" actually is?

Me, I have a picture of something like Amazon Mechanical Turk, except staffed by opinion leaders who receive viral tasks in small capsules delivered by pneumatic tubes, and then peer-pressure their social networks into sharing and liking the same stuff they do.

[frank ly]

Have you thought about patenting that novel and inventive process? (Drop the pneumatic tubes and say 'information pathway'). Give it a few years and you could clean up by patent trolling the social networks.

[Colin Millar]

Prior art for social amplification goes to......

......the Englishman abroad

Keep saying it louder and louder until you get the result you want.

[Dave 126]

Re: Prior art for social amplification goes to......

"Social Amplification" is borrowed in part from the biomedical field. DNA amplification is the process used to create many copies of a DNA strand.

Gus from Drop The Dead Donkey would be proud.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: managing social amplification

It's cool looking youth with ipads hanging out in crowded areas full of (wannabe) cool looking youth. Also, cool looking youth with lots of real/facebook friends. Etc.

Not bad work if you can get it - although it doesn't pay particularly well.

[Chris 3]

I was actually really hoping that the Reg would go into a bit of detail as to what this actually entailed and how they managed it.

Did it involve a megaphone?

[Lutin]

Don't normally like this kind of cynical marketing...

..but I thought the video was very funny.

And nice that the straw man turned out to be an actual man.

[Greg 24]

Kill yourself

Bill Hicks sums up my feelings about this type of marketing perfectly....

[RonWheeler]

Ugh!The whole thing is a..

...bloody mess.

[Anonymous Coward]

I decide

that you don't exist, Mr Lester. And please, don't try to prove otherwise, it's all fabrication anyway.

btw, Paris doesn't exist either, doesn't she.

[Alan W. Rateliff, II]

Well done, Lester!

Thank you for not saving this as a boot-note for Friday. I desperately needed this pick-me-up and have started my hump-day with a hearty guffaw.

Paris, starting off hump-day.

[Pete 2]

Wheeeeee, SPLAT!

> if you can throw in a few boxes of Bodyform for the missus, that'd be handy. She's off skydiving next week.

Wouldn't a parachute be more useful? Or is that part of the surprise.

If at first you don't succeed, parachuting's probably not for you.

[pepper]

Re: Wheeeeee, SPLAT!

Flying is easy! You just need to throw yourself at the ground and miss!

Skydiving is good fun though, I can recommend it to everyone!

[Pete 2]

Re: Wheeeeee, SPLAT!

> You just need to throw yourself at the ground and miss!

As D.A. pointed out. However, if anyone was ever in a position to do this it would have been Felix Baumgartner and even he coudn't make it work. Maybe if' he'd jumped sideways instead?

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: Wheeeeee, SPLAT!

and if you do manage to succeed, whatever you do, DO NOT listen to anything anyone else might say at this point as it is unlikely to be constructive* :)

*The book that just keeps on giving

[A J Stiles]

Re: Wheeeeee, SPLAT!

Surely it will take more than a few boxes of sanitary towels to ensure a soft landing?

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Wheeeeee, SPLAT!

Here's a heartwarming story about "man sent out to buy supplies" that in fact doesn't relate to the topic, but does include the words "towel" and "bounce".

http://notalwaysright.com/a-bounty-of-advice-puts-a-bounce-in-your-step/24071

He's another story about "man sent out to buy supplies, and this time yes it is for those".

http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2011/5/22/how-to-be-a-good-husband-during-ladytimes.html

Apparently quite an accurate representation of the cartoonist and his wife. I don't know if she announces "The ladytimes are upon me," in real life, like that. How the heck would I?

Both of these sources are very useful for lightening a tough week at work, by the way. Unless someone catches you smiling, which is usually a bad career move. After "These are excellent for dressing gunshot wounds," it's going to be a problem.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad Bodyform released this informative video. Up until now, I've been working on the theory that the pads are impregnated with cocaine...thus explaining the irresistible lure to go skydiving, horseriding, partying etc. I'm glad to finally know the truth.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

Bodyform skydiving accessory to prevent whistling.

[Captain Save-a-ho]

Re: Sir

Thank you, Sir Spoon. That was a truly unexpected chuckle. Now, about my keyboard...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sir

Just "Yewwww"

[armyknife]

Amazing.

Wow, what amazingly creative people; to think in the past we had to just put up with those only capable of building bridges, railway lines, defeat fascism, create the welfare state and so forth.

G.Orwell - " Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. "

[NorthernCoder]

Re: Amazing.

Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.

/ Raymond Chandler

[Uncle Slacky]

Re: Amazing.

Are we sure the ad agency involved wasn't really Perfect Curve?

[thegrouch]

I'm sick of reading about this, I hope this is the last I hear of it. Period.

[8Ace]

"We think that women are heroes"

FFS! The've lowered the bar a bit. You used to have to do something extraordinary to be a hero now you just need two X chromosomes.

Pass the sick bucket

[Steady Eddy]

"women are heroes"

"heroines" surely?

[Swarthy]

Curtesy of Mitch Hedburg:

"I'm a heroine addict. I need to have sex with women who have saved someone's life."

[jake]

So in other words ...

... the wannabe meme was just as stupid as it looked on the surface?

Thanks for clearing that up. The adults in the room were so confused. Not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fair play

Actually, having worked with a lot of people at Carat and related companies, I can easily believe this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody else keep reading Bodyform as BodyFARM?

Anybody else keep reading Bodyform as BodyFARM?

I keep having visions of something out of a Bones or CSI here.

[Andy Fletcher]

Here's the bit I don't get

If they can do clever advertising, how come I see ads for feminine hygiene products when I'm watching Red Dwarf at 3am on Dave.

[LaeMing]

Re: Here's the bit I don't get

Because Lister mis-informed Kryten about the nature of Krissie's metabolism.

[Ilgaz]

Re: Here's the bit I don't get

It is a very old rule which works. Throw detergent, sanitary and baby products ads into movies with blood because people will feel dirty or will have urge to clean.

It is a business which goebbels is considered a genius. Evil but genius.

[Not That Andrew]

Re: Here's the bit I don't get

Except there's not much blood in Red Dwarf.

[Ilgaz]

Rocket speed

For a company who isn't in this "social web" business, the speed of such a daring response is amazing.

Just years ago, a person with very creative and neat ideas for a detergent giant was escorted out of presentation to make sure he never, ever come back with new ideas.

These guys (sanitary, detergent, toothpaste) are amazingly big and conservative.

[BristolBachelor]

Re: Rocket speed

Indeed. I don't think I could even get a purchase req sent out in less than a week in any company I've worked at, let alone get agreement about something too.

[Hellcat]

Well I never...

As one of the AC's calling BS on the timing, I must thank El Reg for their relentless journalistic search for the truth.This pretty much answers all the questions I raised. Bravo Sir. BRAVO!

[veti]

How hard was it, really?

The original post was hardly - well, original. It was a staple of stand-up comedy for years after tampons first started to be advertised on TV (sometime in the 90s, don't remember exactly).

I find it deeply not at all surprising that people who work in the business had already thought about it, and were primed and ready to respond to it when it came up yet again in a forum where they could respond.

[M Hurwood]

Re: How hard was it, really?

Exactly. I'm pretty sure Ben Elton for one had a stand up routine that covered this ground, which was in turn made into a sketch including ladies on roller blades jumping into fountains, etc. for one of his TV shows. ("The Man from Auntie" perhaps?)

Why is it that Advertising people thing they're being genuinely creative when they're just rehashing old ideas? We they really surprised the CEO went for their oh-so-clever plan given she'd seen/heard this sort of stuff for the last 20 years?

[Martin Budden]

Mr

At the meeting at the agency, did they draw a flow chart?

[Ancientbr IT]

But why the Windex...?

I still don't under stand why she's drinking a glass of window cleaner...

[Ilgaz]

Re: But why the Windex...?

She is an evil ceo drinking blood. You know, blood is blue in their parallel universe.

[pete 22]

I didn't hear the fart

Where's the fart?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ersatz

Amazing that there really are people who can say "strategy for the brand" earnestly without either wetting themselves or vanishing up their own backsides.

[The last doughnut]

Way to go chaps

I for one am very pleased that the words "cool" and "awesome" were not used in the making of this article.

[Anonymous Coward]

Has anyone suggested LOHAN should release some of these into space?

[Anonymous Coward]

She does really lame farts...

.

More of a "peep" rather than a decent "few pints of Guiness Stout and a good vindaloo curry" fart.

Not a table shaker by any shot.

Make note: "Only use women who can actually really fart."

Or better yet, use get the lady whisperers happing, the chicks that can do the belly belches.

Much better.