We love when we get little tipster emails from people that say things like “Thought you should check out this new site…” and “Viral marketing at its best” because, inevitably, it’s not and we relish the opportunity to squat down and dump all over it like a 400 pound slob who’s just had an enema. This, unfortunately, is not one of those times. This viral, and we do call it viral because we’re sure it’s been paid for or influenced by The Coffee Bean, follows the antics of three roommates as they terrorize a fourth who is a mascot called Mr. Ice Blended for West Coast-based The Coffee Bean.
The site, Masot Roomate, has a bunch of videos that show the guys pulling various pranks on the mascot from attacking him on the job, impersonating him, placing his hands down their pants and mascot mascotnapping him. Without fail, all the guys have MySpace profiles which look like they were all recently created and, for the most part, all have the same friends. In another section. Another section of the site, called “5 mascots we wouldn’t ever fuck with” explains why the Kool-Ais Man, The Fruit of the Loom Guys, Grimace, McGruff the Crime Dawg and The San Diego Chicken are off limits. Only an unleashed creative type would obsess over these icons and write such lines as, “I spent my formative years with my junk cradled in the safe confines of their white cottony briefs” about the Fruit of the Loom Guys.
Well, there you have it. If you don’t have the budget to take over every street corner as Starbucks has, then what’s left but little viral stunts like this. We love the underdog so we’ll root for these guys. And when the people who created the stunt read this, please stand up and reveal yourselves when the time is right so we can provide proper public kudos. Oh, another reason we know it’s viral? Out of the thousands of places they could have notified of this thing’s existence, why in the world would they pick Adrants? After all, we’re just a site about the business of advertising. Oh, not to mention the email came from Omelet, a West coast-based ad agency.
