Two continents, two brilliantly useless websites, one idea
While the industry devotes a fair bit of time to outing copycat advertising, sometimes it really is just a coincidence – and for those involved a frustrating one at that.
Earlier in the year we talked about Jules Hall’s discombobulation when he woke up one morning to hear Australia talking about Tourism Queensland’s Best Job In The World promotion to win that dream job on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.
At the time, his agency The Hallway was days away from launching a campaign for Malibu to win a dream job as a drink taster on the Caribbean island of Barbados.
The same appears to have gone on again now, with two strikingly similar, below-the-radar, comedy campaigns getting underway on opposite sides of the Pacific.
In Australia, news sites this week have been full of ads for the Volley Warehouse Close Call – a stupid stick device for getting people (including Seinfeldian close-talkers) to keep their distance.
A bit of further investigation reveals an online store full of useless products including The Gig Viewer – a strap-on head periscope – and a washing up machine called The Dish Jockey. And of course, a pair of Dunlop Volley shoes.
It’s a reasonably deep site, with a fair bit of comedy to be discovered. Even the copy around the shoes is nicely crafted, including the following testimonial:
“I was always falling over. Then I discovered the Dunlop Volley. Who would have thought that a piece of canvas and some rubber would solve all my problems? I’ve been upright ever since.”
And there’s a blog dedicated to useless inventions such as the baby mop – a romper suit that helps the baby clean the floor as it crawls.
The site looks like the work of Victorian agency Marilyn & Sons. There’s a small link to their agency site from the Volley Warehouse site, and Marilyn & Sons was also behind Dunlop Volley’s “Exceptionally average” ads last year. (It also wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a social media agency involved. Julian Cole of The Population is among the handful of subscribers to the Volley Warehouse YouTube channel. Update: He’s not – he just got onto it early like a good social media expert should).
Which is all dandy, as it’s certainly a different approach.
But as I say, there’s a near-doppelganger campaign in Canada called The Weak Shop.
Their lead product is Chair Pants.
Weak Shop is a bit more subtle in what it’s promoting (it turns out to be milk). But the wacky products idea is very similar. Others include blocks to make your treadmill run downhill and clothes made out of towels.
Weak Shop’s YouTube channel sprang up on September 4.
Volley Warehouse went up on YouTube on September 28.
Clearly, it wouldn’t be possible to create a copycat campaign in three weeks. But the similarities are so striking that if both campaigns get entered for the same international awards they’ll cancel each other out. Both were, I suspect, inspired by the kitsch success of the same real life product – The Snuggie.
When a good idea comes, it sometimes lands in more than one place at once.
Tim Burrowes
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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After reading this article, I am no closer to understanding advertising.
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I often feel the same way after writing an article, Peter.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
For the last year I’ve been working with my brother on a play.
A retelling of the Julius Caesar tale – a new play called ‘Cry Havoc’.
It opens at The Blue Room in Perth on Thursday. http://www.cryhavocplay.blogspot.com/
Two weeks ago when we posted all publicity online (Facebook) we discovered:
http://www.cryhavoc.com.au/Rev.....C.com.html
A new Sydney Theatre company called CRY HAVOC whose first production will be ‘Julius Caesar’
We wish the CRY HAVOC theatre company the best with their production and hope one day in the future they’ll consider performing ‘Cry Havoc’.
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Those books with 101 useless Japanese inventions might have provided some common inspiration perhaps? I saw the Dish DJ today. Nicely done. The baby mop, though, sounds like the Kit Kat ad from a few years back, directed by Adrian Hayward, where the Eastern European mum takes a break by putting mops on her crawling baby. Have to have a look…
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Discombobulation, really?
What a BIG word to use for an article about such silliness in advertising.
Oh well, we all like to think we can still impress.
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Hey, I liked both – given I’m not likely to be judging them both in an awards ceremony anytime soon I’ll stick with the fact that they’re both vaguely funny and sometimes these things happen!
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Love those Volley ads, I saw the Dish Jockey the other day as well. The good thing about both of these campaigns is you can actually get the products.
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Here I want to introduce the UGG boots. I believe there are so many girls dream of a warm wool and practical snow boots. Let’s go and look at their new style. http://www.uggboots4buy.com/
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