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A couple of research scientists are big fans of a fast-growing coffee brand called Goodboybob, but they’d like to put some data behind their opinions.
In a new campaign from independent agency Erich & Kallman, the colleagues test their “best coffee” hypothesis with a bizarre control group. Three words: mutant lab rats.
Adding to a long line of absurdist advertising—perpetuated by the likes of Skittles, Old Spice, Kayak, Ocean Spray and others—Southern California-based Goodboybob launched its biggest marketing campaign to date with a 45-second spot set in an experimental haven.
The rats in question at this particular workplace are equipped with human senses, with recognizable organs growing on their furry backs—two have ears, two have eyes and one has a mouth, courtesy of CGI. Together, when viewed from above, as in the hero spot, they form a sort of freakish human face.
The scientists feed a dropper of Goodboybob to the mouth, which immediately claims, “That’s the best coffee I’ve ever tasted!”
As a longtime fan of surreal creative, Eric Kallman said he and his team wanted a “very simple, yet ridiculous” idea to put Goodboybob on the map.
“In a comedy spot, you need a joke and hilarious dialogue,” Kallman, the agency’s founder and chief creative officer, told Adweek. “But it also has to be as visual as possible, where if you saw it on social, even without sound, you’d stop and go back to it.”
They had first joked about how to prove a “best coffee” theory when, of course, it’s entirely subjective. The lab setting seemed perfect, though. Then they recalled a real-life genetic engineering technique that grew an ear on a mouse’s back (the “Vacanti study” was published in 1997).
