"
. With In The New York Times Magazine: Blendtec
Posted Under: Consumed
MIXED MEDIA:
Corny Salesmanship or entertainment — what’s the difference?
Today in Consumed, a consideration of “Will It Blend?” as both a brand builder, and a de facto media property.
Watch the recent iPhone 3G shredding — 1.5 million views and counting — and you’ll notice Dickson pausing to enumerate the great features in the gizmo’s new version. This is because Blendtec worked directly with AT&T to tape part of that episode outside one of its stores the day the 3G was released. Longtime devotees may have noticed a gradual drift toward the blending of hot products and pop-culture artifacts. Blendtec responded to that Weezer star turn by blending the band’s new CD, and Dickson has lately destroyed a copy of “Grand Theft Auto IV” and a “Guitar Hero III” attachment.
Read the column in the August 24, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.
Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.
.
.
Kim Fellner's book 
.
A
Reader Comments
You should give a nod to Watch It Shred as the Godfather of shredding-videos-as-marketing. I remember a meme about this site a few years ago. I’ll bet it’s where the Blend-tek folks got the idea. Initially, I think the videos were a serious attempt by SSI to demonstrate the capabilities of their shredder, but the vids were so bizarre (boat, car, refrigerator) and poorly produced that they went viral. They seem to have polished up the videos recently, and added some high-concept to them, but in the beginning, they were great. http://www.ssiworld.com
I would like to see the person that created, produced, directed and filmed these ads credited. Kels Goodman was in Richmond, VA for a short time and contributed much to the community with his skills. I scoured your article for his name.
Sebastian: Why do you think it is that Will It Blend took off (per views) so much more than Watch It Shred? Any theories?
arfisher: Are you saying Will It Shred was Kels Goodman’s concept? Because that is it variance with what the company told me. Doesn’t mean it’s not true of course.
And in any case, I want to point out that the point of my column is not to “credit” anyone for anything, the point is to say something that will interest my readers, because that’s who I work for, and that was my goal with this column, as with any column I write. So I hope you will consider judging the work that way, rather than whether or not any specific individual gets name checked.
But again, what you’re saying is at odds with what I was told, but it is certainly not my job to do deny “credit” (if that’s even the right word, if you’ll consider what we’re discussing here) for anything.