Last year, weed killer Weed B Gone introduced Prickly, a quick-spreading, rude weed that took over YouTube re-roll ads. Now, Prickly is back and spreading all over Canadian TV in a clever media stunt by the Toronto agency Rethink.
It starts with a TVC in which Prickly introduces himself and shows how fast he multiplies. And to prove his point, he tells the audience to go to The Food Network on channel 56.
When they do change the channel, a cleverly timed TVC has Prickly on the screen and he’s continuing to spread.
The stunt continues onto Slice on 41, History on 43 and W Network on 27 where Prickly is met by Weed B Gone and destroyed.
Rethink creative director Aaron Starkman told Adweek it had the stations and timings before the copy was finalised so Prickly could lead people to the right channel and the exact moment.
For example, Prickly was on The Food Network two seconds after he ended on the first channel.
