Nov 18

RPA Taps Michael Bolton as ‘Talent’ for ‘Happy Honda Days’

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If there’s one thing the Internet loves (aside from cats and pornography), it’s cheesy celebrities from bygone eras. This has accounted for the revival of figures like Rick Astley, who has reemerged in the public consciousness thanks to rickrolling. RPA seeks to cash in on the phenomenon with their “Happy Honda Days” campaign, featuring Michael Bolton, the man once referred to as a “no-talent ass clown” in Office Space who returns to advertising after stints in spots like the one for Optimum earlier this year.

The campaign contains four new spots, all of which feature Bolton singing. Each spot begins by asking “What does it feel like to get a great deal at Happy Honda Days?” before answering with an original holiday song from Michael Bolton. (These would have been much funnier if they had made Bolton sing “When a Man Loves a Honda,” but I digress…) Our favorite is the spot featured above, in which Bolton’s singing is met by blank stares (probably the most honestly depicted reaction of the four spots/how we would react in that situation). As you can surmise, RPA went for the goofy approach with this campaign, in the hopes that people find the spots memorable. It would help if there was a little more variation among the four 30 second ads, as they all feel like basically the same spot. In addition to the TV campaign, there will be a live social media event on November 22nd featuring Bolton delivering personalized messaged under the promoted hashtag #XOXOBolton, as well as print and radio campaigns.

We don’t know about you, but we can’t see or hear anything about Michael Bolton without thinking of this. Credits and second “Happy Honda Days” spot after the jump. continued…

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Apr 06

Rickrolling the NY Mets

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As if Rick Astley wasn’t getting enough inexplicable renewed popularity, here’s a bit more. A brilliant digg user decided to solicit the help of fellow dig users on a level of epic proportion when he discovered that the New York Mets are holding a contest to vote for the 8th inning sing-a-long song. Potential to be quite possibly the largest Rickrolling of all time.

And for those not too familiar with the concept of Rick Rolling, here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Around the year 2003, an Internet prank known as “rickrolling” appeared involving misleading links redirecting to the music video. It increased in popularity as a 2008 April Fool’s Day joke through various media, including YouTube rickrolling all of its featured videos on that day, and a website allowing people to Rickroll their friends phones.

In ‘a couple of weeks’, about 13 million people had been ‘rickrolled’ into watching Astley’s video, the BBC reported on 1 April, 2008.”I think it’s just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it,” Astley told the Los Angeles Times in late March 2008, adding: “That’s what’s brilliant about the internet.”

So now the link has been dugg over 8000 times, and it’s spreading on fark and 4chan as well. Tomorrow is the final day to vote. It’s certainly a very real possibility that the NY Mets (and fans) may have just been Rickrolled like never before. Which says a good deal for internet memes and the significance of internet users (like those on digg) in swaying public polls – and who knows what else. Just something to think about while you try to imagine a packed Shae Stadium sinning “never gonna give you up…”

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