Sidetrack: HeadOn

So by now, most of you are probably familiar with HeadOn, the product that you -say it with me now- apply directly to the forehead. This commercial has been everywhere in the month of August. If you haven't seen it, I venture to say you have been watching little to no TV at all. I watch maybe 2-3 hours of television a week and I've seen this commercial enough times that I probably will never forget it for the rest of my life.

Before I go on, here is the commercial in case you have no clue what I'm talking about:

Okay... so it's about 10 seconds of "HeadOn - Apply Directly to the Forehead" repeated 3 times. At first I though that this had to be the lamest commercial I had ever seen. Upon doing doing some reading about this online, I have found that this type of advertising has proven to be really successful!

A couple things contribute. 1.) Obviously, the repetition. With the same phrase being repeated, you're bound to remember it. 2.) The commercial never says what the product actually does. Thus in curiousity, most would be intrigued enough to find out more about HeadOn on their own. Once finding out it's actualy use (to relieve headaches), one might actually go out and purchase one. I'd even imagine several people have gone straight to WalMart and picked up a tube of HeadOn just out of curiousity!

I tip my hat to the advertising genius behind the HeadOn commercials.

Another good thing about the HeadOn commercial is that it has spawned a couple parodies that I think are hillarious.

Don't rub too hard:


Barry Bonds loves it:


Jimmy Kimmel Live:


The Daily Show:


And my personal favorite:




Here is a segment on NBC's Nightly News regarding this commercial:



Yay for HeadOn!