A few days ago, I found 14 videos that obviously were part of a television ad campaign for Brother’s label-making machine. All of the segments were shot on or near Route 66.
The account that posted the videos was “BrotherUK,” but no other information about the campaign existed.
Today, a report by Campaign Live, based in Great Britain, provided the details:
Brother UK, the printer and office equipment manufacturer, is set to launch its biggest marketing campaign to date next week, with the concept of taking its machines on “the ultimate road test” down the length of Route 66 in the US.
The £1.5m campaign, created by Grey London, aims to show the versatility of the brand’s labelling product range and runs across TV, print and online.
It introduces the stapline, “Labels are powerful – what does yours say?”, and features interviews with individuals who live along Route 66, discussing what the label “Route 66” means and how they would label themselves.
Route 66 is one of the original US highways and runs between Chicago and Los Angeles. Filmed in just 10 days, across 10 locations and covering 3,000 miles, the ad features school teachers, pupils, cowboys, and dancers discussing the meaning behind the label of Route 66 and how they would label themselves.
The report goes on to say the first ad will be aired in Britain on Aug. 22 and continue for a month. Print ads also will be posted in prominent British magazines, and Brother will launch a dedicated Facebook page for the campaign. The campaign also will likely be rolled out in Europe later this year.
So Route 66 and its people — including Ron “Tattoo Man” Jones — will get a nice dose of publicity in the coming weeks.
But the story doesn’t quite end there.
On Monday, after my initial Brother ad campaign story had been up throughout the weekend, I received a frantic email from a senior account executive from a public-relations firm in London. He begged me to take down the post “ASAP” because the ad content was embargoed until Friday.
He said the videos “shouldn’t have been released yet” on YouTube, and asked how I found out about them.
I turned down his request to pull the story. I thought it was newsworthy, and the big story today from Campaign Live confirmed my instincts. I also pointed out that the videos all were public on YouTube, and that others in the Route 66 community had distributed links to them. Content available the Internet is like a genie — once it’s out of the bottle, it’s nearly impossible to put it back in and keep it secret.
On his second question, I replied I found the videos with a simple search for Route 66 on YouTube. No hacking nor nefarious Internet activity was involved. Instead, it’s apparent someone at the PR firm simply forgot to place the clips in “private” mode while uploading them to YouTube. The BrotherUK account on YouTube did change the videos to private mode on Monday.
I advised the account executive to admit their firm’s screw-up, scrap the embargo, and announce the Brother ad campaign a few days early.
I’m not saying he took the advice. But it’s Wednesday, and here we are.
UPDATE 8/19/2011: Go here to see all 14 of the Brother television ads, which are up on YouTube again.
Route 66…IT’S ALIVE!!!