Marketing Made Simple · 2025-09-10 · 32 min
Why That Worked explores what made three seemingly simple yet absurdly annoying campaigns become cultural phenomena and revenue generators. Head On became famous for its grating, repetitive "Apply directly to the forehead" message, which drove a 234% sales increase and generated $6.3M in revenue from a $1.9M baseline in 2005. The campaign succeeded by avoiding over-explanation and leveraging an unforgettable, anxiety-inducing audio signature that forced attention. Chia Pet's "pottery that grows" positioning, combined with the earworm "Ch-ch-ch-Chia," built a $300M annual revenue business by using extreme economy of words and demonstrating a clear, three-step usage plan that overcame consumer cognitive dissonance. The George Foreman Grill rounds out the examples as another celebrity-endorsed product that became a cultural icon. Donald Miller and Kyle Reed break down the core principles: avoiding over-enlightenment, making complex products memorable through constraint, creating memorizable sonic branding, addressing subconscious objections without stating them, and letting inference do the heavy lifting. The discussion reveals how Head On failed under new ownership (Sirvision) when they reformulated and lost the original campaign strategy, while Chia Pet maintained cultural relevance through licensing popular characters alongside its original offering.
The high-pitched, panic-inducing repetition of 'Apply directly to the forehead' made the ad impossible to ignore or tune out, while the simple visual and message let customers infer it was a headache medicine without over-explanation. This earned 234% sales growth and $6.3M revenue from a $1.9M baseline.
The company sold it in 2008 to Sirvision, which reformulated the product with herbal ingredients, shifted to homeopathic positioning, and stopped running the original annoying campaign - causing the brand to fade from public consciousness despite regulatory and efficacy pressures.
By using extreme simplicity - 'the pottery that grows' - combined with an earworm jingle ('Ch-ch-ch-Chia'), demonstrating a clear usage plan (plant seeds, add water, watch grow), and later licensing popular characters like SpongeBob while maintaining the original offering.
A framework that requires your ad to answer three things clearly: what do you offer, how will it make my life better, and what do I need to do to buy it - ideally all communicable in 30 seconds or less.
Explaining obvious benefits makes the customer work harder mentally and dilutes focus; instead, only explain the novel or differentiating aspects of your product while letting customers infer the rest.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Exciting news, Hero Makers! We're sharing a new episode of Why That Worked - Presented by StoryBrand.AI, with Donald Miller back in the host seat. This new show uncovers why certain ideas, brands, and strategies succeed - so you can think differently and apply those insights to your business and life. Hopefully you're getting a chance to recharge this summer - but that doesn't mean you have to lose momentum. Fall is just around the corner, and before you know it we'll be heading into the final stretch of the year. That's why (for just a couple more weeks) we're rereleasing several of our high-impact episodes - designed to give you clarity, sharpen your message, attract the right customers, and ultimately drive more revenue, so you're not stuck playing catch-up when it matters most! - Most people try to make their marketing polished, clever, or inspirational. But in the end, clarity beats creativity every time. In fact, some of the most "annoying" ads in history made hundreds of millions of dollars simply because they were impossible to ignore. They weren't beautiful, they weren't clever, but they were unforgettable. So why do so many businesses avoid this approach?
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Hey, hero makers, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards. I'm jumping in to share with you a new episode of our brand new podcast, why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI with Donald Miller back in the host seat. Now, since we launched Marketing Made simple, we've been so grateful to have everybody tune in each week to learn how to make your marketing easy and make it work. Which is exactly why we're sharing new episodes of the why that Worked podcast here. In the old Marketing Made simple feedback, but only for a limited time. Each episode of the new show is gonna deliver actionable insights and key takeaways that are all designed so you can implement them to help make whatever you're working on work. Now, here's the deal. Like I said, this is only for a limited time. If you wanna catch new episodes early, you can watch or listen every Monday. To watch the show, just go subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel. And to listen, go follow why that worked presented by StoryBrand AI wherever you enjoy your podcasts. All right, that's it for me. So grateful you're here. And enjoy this week's episode of why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI. Uh, you're listening to the why that Work podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.
Speaker B: Welcome back to the why that Worked podcast, where we look at messaging campaigns that worked, why they worked, and how you can apply those ideas to your business. Today, we are talking about weird, annoying marketing campaigns that worked, that worked. Like this one, Cha Cha Cha Chia. Do you remember that?
Speaker C: Oh, how could you forget one you bought? Have you ever bought one? No, I bought one. I think I bought one as a kid.
Speaker B: I was like, if only they're fun
Speaker C: stocking stuffers as a kid. You're right. It's a great kid stocking stuff.
Speaker B: And I really wanted an ant farm, but that's not what we're talking about. I just thought an ant farm was cool.
Speaker C: Now that I'm a parent, I get the whole like, let's leave the ants.
Speaker B: Yeah, let's leave it outside. Which makes total sense. But you brought one up to me I'd never heard of. You kept saying it to me, apply
Speaker C: to the head, head on.
Speaker B: I had to look it up and I've got to play it for people
Speaker C: who, you know now, uh, that now this is going to be one of those things. You're going to play it. And if you're older than about.
Speaker B: How old are you? 38.
Speaker C: If you're older than like 43, I'm guessing, right in there falls, you know,
Speaker B: in the 70s, you'll get this. If it's.
Speaker C: I think it's like a 20, I think it was like 25 years ago.
Speaker B: It looks like that. And you got to. We're going to play this right now. You'll hear it, but you also have to go see it. So go to our YouTube.
Speaker C: Yeah, go to YouTube.
Speaker B: You'll see the ad itself. Let me play the Head on commercial. Really? Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Speaker A: Head On.
Speaker B: Apply directly to the forehead.
Speaker A: Head On Apply directly to the forehead.
Speaker B: Head on is available without a prescription at retailers nationwide.
Speaker C: Hundreds of millions of dollars. Hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker B: You have to go see it because it's just a woman rubbing something on her head. Uh, uh, like a headache relief. That's it.
Speaker C: What's amazing is she doesn't say what it's about.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker C: But, you know, you, you kind of infer that it's a, uh, headache medicine. It's a differentiator. You know, you don't take a pill. You apply it to the forehead. It's her showing you how to do it. That whole campaign is a lot of what we talk about at storybrand in terms of not making the customer think it's. Why explain something that they already understand
Speaker B: and they just repeat it over and
Speaker C: over, which I think is super smart. And get your. That would play up, by the way, that would play on the radio and it would come up on television, that exact commercial. And it was constant. And I, uh, don't know what happened with the company. I don't know if it's like poor leadership, whatever. They made hundreds of millions of dollars on that. Do we have any numbers on that?
Speaker B: So here's what happened when they ran that campaign. It was about. In 2005, when they ran that, uh, the sales increased by 234%. So their average revenue per year was $1.9 million.
Speaker C: Okay, so that's 6.3. Tiny company.
Speaker B: Very tiny.
Speaker C: Making a knockoff to Tylenol.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker C: Or whatever.
Speaker B: Invest a lot of money to make ibuprofen by commercial space, you know, to run ads. And they increased by 234%.
Speaker C: I'm curious, because that would be, you know, so they went from 2 million to about 6 point something million. I wonder what their ad spend on. Now here's the thing. Extremely low production.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker C: On the, on the ad, uh, probably bought ad space for like, I mean it's television, right? But at the same time where they were buying ads and how short those ads were, I mean you're literally talking under a hundred bucks to buy those ads. So it probably wasn't as expensive as you think. It was ridiculously memorable. Uh, and the reason was it was so fricking annoying and startling. It was like, buckle your seatbelt. Uh, you know, buckle your seatbelt. Accident imminent. Bucket your seat. Plane going down. Plane going down. It was that kind of like voice, I mean, really kind of brilliant.
Speaker B: Don, you seem to like the campaign. What, what can we apply from that?
Speaker C: Why is this really annoying? Well, let's just, let's be honest here. Let's talk about the fact that dirt. Dirt cheap, right? No major ad agency involved. Couple things about the campaign. One is they didn't over explain and this is a massive problem with owners and founders of uh, companies they just frickin own. I was just with somebody, I won't name them, they were at the house, we were talking about their campaign and I would say, what about this tagline? They said, well that doesn't quite cover it because blah, blah, blah, literally my eyes are glazing over as this guy is explaining the ridiculously nuanced, uh, truths about his product. And I can't stand it. Not only that this person's wife was with them and the person's wife literally said he did this to a waiter today. And you could see the waiter trying to get away. And I'm like, this is exactly. I call it over enlightening. When you're over enlightening the customer, you're actually moving them away from sales. Right? If I hand you, um, it's not a jar, whatever, a stick of head on, right? If I say apply directly to the forehead, you're inferring that one. This is some sort of headache medicine. The lady on the ad looks like she has a headache. So now you don't have to say it. You're not asking the customer to burn any calories to understand that this solves a headache. You're really emphasizing the differentiator between this and uh, Tylenol or a pill that you take. So now I go, okay, I apply this head rather than this. People believe that when something is the same but different, it works better.
Speaker B: That's good.
Speaker C: It's a headache medicine, but it's different. So Therefore, it's going to work better. But. But you don't have to explain it. The second is, uh, that annoyingly high pitched, panic inducing. You listen to that and your stress levels go. You cannot ignore that. M. How many television commercials do you ignore as soon as they come on?
Speaker B: 98% of them.
Speaker C: That's right. You're not going to ignore this because it's going to be grating on your nerves. There's something that's kind of brilliant about that. So I think there's some things to learn here. But let me just ask you this as a thought exercise to all of our listeners. If you had to say something like this about your brand, you know, if I had to say, uh, what I would say is don't go bankrupt. Clarify your marketing message. Don't go bankrupt, Clarify your marketing message. Don't go bankrupt, clarify your marketing message. Um, um. So I'm being annoying and I'm getting my message into the brain of that. I'm shoving it into their ears, into their brain where they have to process the idea. I'm not saying everybody needs to do this. I'm just saying that's why it worked.
Speaker B: But there's a principle inside of it. I think that it's so easy to go over nuanced in your marketing. You know, you talk about this with your website where you go into your whole family history and you know you can.
Speaker C: Our, our brand started 75 years ago when my grandfather, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B: Yep. And it. And it. They head on could have gotten nuanced.
Speaker C: It's a. Yeah, there's a different acetaminophen in our thing and it absorbs, uh, through the skin much better than the, uh. Now think, let's stop here.
Speaker B: Yep.
Speaker C: It absorbs through the skin much faster than a pill. Uh, the fillers in a pill, uh, eventually clog up your arteries. You know, whatever. All the nuanced reasons they literally go, if we say that, which is an amazing thing to say, nobody will listen. What can we say that 100% of people will actually hear? That's the controlling idea behind this. Uh, what can we say that nobody will be literally able to tune out. They're gonna have to hear us. Keep it short, make it high pitched, put it in a panic inducing voice and fricking repeat it. Yep, uh, yep, uh, and that I'm just sitting there going, that's genius. And you know what they paid that ad agency? Nothing.
Speaker B: Yep. It's so true. And I think the thing that's so fascinating about it is like the ad so quick that you can't really process. You're really just sitting there going, oh, I have a headache. I'd love relief. But you can't think about the utility of it because once you start breaking, you're like, wait, you rub it on your. It goes through. How does that work?
Speaker C: Well, Kyle, not only this, I haven't heard that ad in 25 years. And when we came up with this idea, annoying ads that work, I literally went head on. Apply to forehead. Head on. It was stamped into my subconscious.
Speaker B: If it's so successful, why don't they exist anymore?
Speaker C: Well, I did some research on that because I wanted to make sure that I didn't look like a fool here. Head on was actually. Uh, the founding company was Morales Healthcare. It's a Florida based company. And According to Storybrand AI uh, the product was gained notoriety in 2006 because of its minimalist and repetitive advertising, which became a viral sensation. And you ready? They sold it. Uh, so they made a truckload of money. And the people they sold it to in 2008, two years later, were called Sirvision. And under Sirvision's ownership, the product was reformulated. Problem number one, to, to include herbal ingredients while maintaining its homeopathic positioning. So I guarantee you what happened with Survision is they went nuanced. Yeah, they took something that was steaming hot and they said, let's make it better. But in order to explain how it's better, you're gonna lose all the efficacy of the simple campaign. So one, they sold it to somebody else. The geniuses who scaled it up sold it to somebody who changed the strategy. That's one thing. Is it still sold today? It is available on the market, but it's largely faded from public consciousness. It's, uh, primarily marketed as a homeopathic remedy, which is not how it was introduced. And so when you try to change something like that, it's not gonna work. They've also got, according to A.I. uh, there's four things. Lack of proven efficacy. They never had case studies that really proved that it worked. There was a marketing shift, the viral success of commercials. They stopped doing that. Uh, I think they could probably bring it back, but I guarantee these people are too snooty to do that. Right. Like what homeopathic company wants to annoy the heck out of everybody listening to the radio or watching tv. Regulatory pressure. Thanks, big government. Thanks for making sure things work before we actually sell them. Early claims about headache relief were removed following objections from the Better Business Bureau.
Speaker B: That's not fun. Let's just find out later.
Speaker C: Well, it was working fine to make money. Better Business Bureau. Uh, we're kidding. Of course we're kidding. Leaving the product with little more than a memorable tagline. Very memorable, by the way. Niche market as a homeopathic product with questionable efficacy. Head on appeals to a limited audience. Today, a bunch of hippie, uh, homeschool moms. That's all that's left.
Speaker B: That's what storybrand AI said.
Speaker C: No, that was me adding editorial comment. I love way to kill a brand,
Speaker B: but I love the beginning of the brand because they, they said, what's the problem our customers facing and how do we solve it? And how do we make it as simple as possible?
Speaker C: Yeah, I love it. Maybe one of the better examples ever, ever of just simple. Almost. Let's be almost too simple. I mean.
Speaker B: Yeah, well, once it stood up to probably some testing, it didn't make it.
Speaker C: Tired of taking pills? Tired of taking pills for your headache? Apply this to your forehead.
Speaker B: You know that's it.
Speaker C: Yeah. Problem is it doesn't work.
Speaker B: So. Okay, but don't take us up on if it works or not.
Speaker A: If you don't communicate clearly, all your emails, your website, social media posts, everything you're communicating will be ignored. Storybrand AI is like the world's best communication expert writing it for you. Imagine having the world's best communicator writing your tagline. Just type in the name of your company, answer a few prompts, and voila. Hey, that's a good one. Use it to write your social media posts, website, wireframe emails, lead generating PDF, product or service descriptions, anything you need for your business. What would happen to your revenue if every word that left your business was crystal clear and worth paying attention to? StoryBrand AI is your competitive advantage. So you'll know, you'll say it clearly. Try it right now. And let us write your custom tagline for free at story. StoryBrand AI. And now back to the show.
Speaker B: So this episode is all about annoying marketing and messaging.
Speaker C: That's, uh, Right. That was one of them.
Speaker B: So that was one of them. Another one we have to talk about
Speaker C: is that we like a lot more.
Speaker B: Yes, the Chia Pet.
Speaker C: All right, let's play that one. Chia Pets, the pottery that grows. And now there's the Chia Gnome, Chia spongebob. And everyone's favorite gal, Chia hello Kitty. It's fun. Soak your Chia. Spread the seeds, water and watch it grow. Ch. Ch.
Speaker B: Chia.
Speaker C: There's even Chia Alex and Chia Marty. So Many Chia Pets. You can collect them all. Chia Pets, the pottery that grows.
Speaker B: Ch. Ch. Ch. Chia. There's so many.
Speaker C: Who's Chia Alex?
Speaker B: Collect them all.
Speaker C: What's Chia Alex?
Speaker B: No idea.
Speaker C: They tried to make their own character. They did a whole lot. A whole lot of good going on there. I mean, so much m. Really effective messaging. It's going to be hard to make a long enough list.
Speaker B: Yeah, go for it.
Speaker C: Think about how. Think about how, um, economic. Sorry. Think about how economical that messaging is. And what I mean by that is, uh, an economy of words. Um, very, very, very, very succinct messaging. The pottery that grows. M. Now that all sounds like, super simple, like, nobody thought about it.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: The pottery that grows is actually a way of describing something. Now. You do need to see the visual on it where you see those sprouts coming out of the thing and making hair.
Speaker B: They never went that fast, but yeah.
Speaker C: Oh, you had them.
Speaker B: Yeah. They never. Never maybe. I think so. If I remember.
Speaker C: Never work in seconds.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C: The way.
Speaker B: They never worked the way. Kind of like head on. It never worked like that.
Speaker C: I can tell that you were six when you got your first Chia Pet. You're like, well, it's supposed to be growing. No, it takes a minute. But, you know, um, the pottery that grows, a great way to describe it. Another thing that they did. And then let's also catch the Ch. Ch. Chia. They are literally branding and causing you to memorize a tagline or a name of a product. Right. Cha Cha. Chichiya. Cha Cha Cha. It gets stuck in your brain. That is really freaking brilliant and actually a little bit hard to accomplish. Then did you notice there was a plan in the app?
Speaker B: Yes, I was going to bring that up. They give the steps. I think it was three or four steps of just add water. All the things.
Speaker C: Yeah. Plant the seed, add the water.
Speaker B: I noticed that, too, because again, uh, I'm always in the story, brand, framework, mindset.
Speaker C: Let's talk about what that's doing. It's like, okay, it's the pottery that grows. It's called Chia Pet. They're available in a bunch of different things. Um, and then the cognitive dissonance. Okay. If I buy this, the subconscious mind says, I'm not going to buy this because I don't understand how it works or whether it will work for me. And literally, in the ad, they overcome that. Uh, they overcome a subconscious objection. Nobody would actually say that's their objection, but it is. And they overcome it in the Ad plant the seeds, water the frickin thing, you know, put it in sunlight, uh, you know, whatever those that plan was. And now you go, oh, I can do that. And so you end up buying it and by the way, making truckloads of money. Do you have the report on how much they're actually.
Speaker B: So they, when they ran this, this translated to $300 million in annual revenue at their peak mackerel. $300 million just selling something that grows the pot.
Speaker C: Well, they're selling pottery that grows. I don't think it's the sort of grass you can mow, but I would imagine that it's actually like, like you could trim it. They have Budding Buddies, by the way. One of my favorite movies of all time is Step Brothers.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker C: When I just need a good stupid laugh. They actually have Will Ferrell.
Speaker B: That's a good marketing.
Speaker C: Yeah, Budding Buddies kind of.
Speaker B: We were talking earlier about Chia Pet. Some of the things they did right in a commercial. They also introduced characters that you could by our identity.
Speaker C: I was curious, what would you think of the square, square pants spongebob thing? Because they probably had to pay some money for that.
Speaker B: Oh, I'm sure there's a license which was uh, probably a good move for them, uh, from a business standpoint to start licensing out some characters. Yeah, I think you called it out while we were watching it. The mistake they made was they tried to introduce their own characters. I think that was, I mean the,
Speaker C: the actual hedgehog was their own character, but who the heck is Alex?
Speaker B: Yeah, that's, it's, it's cheaper obviously for them to make their own. But just licensing out, you know, SpongeBob and your favorite characters on TV. I mean imagine if they. Well, they probably are still around but if they're doing all the Disney princesses and, or all the, you know, the, the things that, that kids watch these days.
Speaker C: Uh, you can't beat the, you can't beat the original Chia Pet. I literally, I literally just bought one while we were sitting here talking. I love that I bought the original one because I'm Emmeline's going to love.
Speaker B: Yeah, we, we should set up a live feed of watching it and you can check in and watch and see how it develops. Alright, so Chia Pet nailed it. Uh, let's talk about another one.
Speaker C: And let's real quick though, summarizing what you can apply, uh, memorization, uh, the art of marketing. A good marketing campaign will cause your client, your potential customer to memorize your offer. They define, we Always talk about passing the grunt test. What do you offer? How will it make my life better and what do I need to do to buy it? That short radio ad or whatever, that television ad covers that. What do you offer? I offer pottery that grows. Now think about how hard, how long it took for them to figure out how to explain that. I mean, it sounds easy, but it
Speaker B: wasn't, it wasn't at the time. Novelty, right?
Speaker C: It's called a Chia Pet. They caused me to memorize that. Endless hours of fun, you know, whatever. I don't know if the ad even covers that. What do I need to buy it? Available at Walgreens.
Speaker B: Yep, that's right.
Speaker C: It's all there.
Speaker B: And in the ad, uh, they gave a plan. Here's how you do. Here's the steps you take to be successful.
Speaker C: Can I just tell you how everybody listening to this, including perhaps us, Kyle, uh, would have approached this marketing effort? We can teach about botany and we can teach. Kids will love it. Your aunt will love it, your grandmother. You don't need to explain that. People are going to infer. I literally looked at the Chia Pet and went, my daughter would love that. Uh, do they have to explain that to me? Then don't. Don't, uh, use the words explaining what people already understand. Use the words explaining what they don't understand. What is that? It's pottery that grows. Right. It's lots of fun. You can get it at Walgreens. It's a great, you know, that's good. Let me tell you what will sell a lot this Christmas season for almost everybody listening who has the right product. It's a great stocking stuffer. Mhm.
Speaker B: That's right.
Speaker C: Kids will love it.
Speaker B: Kids will love it. That's.
Speaker C: So your grandmother's gonna, you know, those. Kids will love it. It's a great stocking stuffer. As soon as you say it's a great stocking stuffer, I'm like, okay, yep, 100%. Yeah. I don't want to talk about what a great stocking stuffer. If you're saying it's a great stocking stuffer, it's a great stocking stuffer.
Speaker B: That's so good. It's. It's not about explaining why you'll love it. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker C: Well, I don't, you know, that should be pretty darn obvious.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: And if you can say why you'll love it, uh, in, you know, a very short period of time, I think that's okay.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker C: But I think that really what you want to say is like, what's in this for me? What I got to do is fill stockings. That's what I've got to do. Uh, what I've got to do is be a good dad. What I've got to do is have something fun to do with my daughter. What I've got to do. And this is, this is actually saying all of it. It's inferred in the, in the marketing campaign. But the bigger thing is again, uh, kind of like head on. Sort of annoyingly repetitive. You know, it's standing out. And that was very, very smarter than me.
Speaker B: Good. All right, so I got one more for you. Do you remember the George Foreman Grill?
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker B: So here's the George Foreman 30 second
Speaker C: commercial that I found from Play the whole frickin thing. God, uh, rest his soul. What a great man. This is my George Foreman family sized grill. That is it. It's my George Foreman griddle that cooks pancakes.
Speaker B: It's my George Foreman baking oven. And it's making.
Speaker C: No, no, no. It's actually my omelet maker that makes the. No, it isn't. It's a grill griddle.
Speaker B: I'm, um. The grill.
Speaker C: Calm down, guys.
Speaker B: You.
Speaker C: All right?
Speaker B: It's my G5 with five removable cooking plates.
Speaker C: So it makes all of your favorite foods and it makes. Knocks off the fat. The George Foreman G5. It's the next grilleration. All right. A lot there. The next grillerization.
Speaker B: Amazing.
Speaker C: Uh, the controlling idea from the very beginning. It knocks out the fat. Yeah, that's the one. Well, it was also the main controlling idea early on in the infomercials. The whole idea is you could make a piece of meat and the fat would drain off.
Speaker B: Yeah. Which is such a. Okay, so why is that? Why?
Speaker C: Well, back in the day. Back in the day, uh, this was during the day when we all thought we were supposed to be eating grains.
Speaker B: Interesting.
Speaker C: And we weren't supposed to be eating fat. Uh, and there's still some truth to that. If you eat grains and fat, it's not. It's not very great for you. If you just eat fat, it's great for you. You know, all that kind of stuff. Ketosis. I'm not a doctor, but it would knock out the fat in such a way that you could take a piece of steak and eat it or a piece of chicken, and you wouldn't have the fat that they thought was harmful.
Speaker B: See, I always thought they were selling ketos convenience.
Speaker C: Well, that's because you were a bachelor.
Speaker B: Did you have A George Foreman.
Speaker C: I remember I've used a George Foreman. So I'm guessing we had one. I think maybe we had one in my home when I was a kid.
Speaker B: I. I remember as a kid, maybe teenager wanting one. Why?
Speaker C: Wow. Because you saw it on infomercial, probably. George Foreman was, um, awesome.
Speaker B: But I remember it was terrible.
Speaker C: It.
Speaker B: The food you cooked on that was. It was not.
Speaker C: Have you heard that comedian who does, like the bit on the George Foreman grill? He's, you know, he's pretending to be George Foreman. He's in a meeting. They're like, should we have an off switch? No, no, no. Just drain the fat. Should we be able to put some sort of safety thing on it so the thing doesn't close your. No, no, no, no. Just drain the fat. Like, he goes through the whole thing on, uh.
Speaker B: The only thing I think of is the Michael Scott in the office where he burns his foot on his. George Foreman because he wanted to have bacon when he woke up. That's the only one I can think of. But the food was not good on it. But. But that's interesting that I.
Speaker C: It's a glorified panini maker, really. These have been in Italy since the invention of electricity.
Speaker B: So the annoying side of this marketing we've been kind of talking about is, okay, this time they introduced a celebrity and put a celebrity's name on marketing,
Speaker C: because George Foreman is the king of invention of food product. Right.
Speaker B: How much money did they make? Did you look that up?
Speaker C: I did look that up. You ready?
Speaker B: Yep.
Speaker C: The George Foreman Grill has sold over X units.
Speaker B: Guess I hate when you do this. How many units ever?
Speaker C: Ever? Now there's 330 million people in America. So there's a number to start with. 23 million 120 million units. 120 million units globally.
Speaker B: And they're probably like, what, like, 59.
Speaker C: One of the best selling kitchen appliances of all time. Sales skyrocketed from $5 million, which is pretty good, in 1996, to. To $400 million six years later. And that's all from its peak year. In its peak year, they sold 14 million grills. Today, the grill remains popular, consistently outperforming competitors. Think about it. It launched a whole industry of, like, fat trimming grills, I guess. Now, George Foreman, poor George, only got 40% of profits, making $8 million per month, more than any fight.
Speaker B: That's unreal.
Speaker C: Yeah, 8 million. I doubt he made much more than 8 million for any of his fights, because he was fighting back in the day when, you know, there weren't these 40 million dollar paydays. Uh, in 1999, Salton bought out the rights to use its name.
Speaker B: Huh.
Speaker C: They paid 1 37.5 million. Imagine George Foreman's payday on that, including cash and stock. Overall, Foreman made much more than 200 million from the grill. And far exceeding, of course, his boxing career. Here's some interesting tidbits about the company. I didn't know this origins of the grill. The grill was originally pitched as the Fajita Express. Uh, its slanted design for fat drainage was key to its eventual success.
Speaker B: That really was big.
Speaker C: That was big. But if you think about it, selling it on how to make fajitas really quick, you're gonna sell 37 units, drain the fat out of your meat. You get all the protein without the fat. Somebody found the right messaging angle on it. It's the same freaking thing.
Speaker B: That's right now. This is really important, which is what
Speaker C: you talked about earlier, but also just think about for our listening audience, it's the same product. The difference between 5 million and 120 million, or whatever the numbers were earlier was talking about it differently. That's the whole point of this podcast. If you just start talking about things differently and experimenting, your business could explode. It's the whole fricking point of this podcast. So, you know, the Fajita Express versus George Foreman Grill, focusing on knock out the fat. Uh, Knock out the fat is worth all that money. And George Foreman was absolutely worth 40. But by the way, is a great take. Yes, 40% of the profit is a great take because he's not running the company. He's not hiring and firing people. He, he's not negotiating health expenses. He's not buying buildings. He's not doing vendor supply chains out of Korea or Vietnam or China or wherever they're making these freaking things. He's not having to do any of that. And he's getting 40% of the profit. Fantastic. George, Way to negotiate, man.
Speaker B: That is a. I heard knock out the fat. I skipped over it. You were so right.
Speaker C: Well, but it's because what we listened to is a commercial where it's like the ninth iteration of it. Knock, uh out the Fat was mentioned in there, but it was actually at the beginning of the campaign. It was all the campaign was about.
Speaker B: Yeah, that was the newer version of that commercial. But you're right, that's. And once you, uh, it's kind of what we've been talking about. Once you nail that tagline or that message, just watching sales and things explode
Speaker C: Later, Later, George would say, it's so good, I put my name on it. Which is interesting. That was also an interesting sort of sub tagline because you have a celebrity who's vouching for a product. Yeah. Giving it authority. Um, the visual demonstrations, the infomercials that showcase the fat dripping off food into trays, you know, emphasizing the health benefits, the convenience of it, uh, that really appealed. Uh, and then you can't beat just the authenticity of George Foreman. He's just such a likable, likable guy. I mean, you know, perfect storm there in that product, but still selling.
Speaker B: I love, though, how they figured out that one thing they could solve that
Speaker C: one problem that people were drain the fat.
Speaker B: It works.
Speaker C: A lot of stuff to copy there. If you're a brand, what would you copy if you were a brand? You don't sell anything. Like a grill. Talk to me about, uh, it's the same but different.
Speaker B: It's the finding that one thing that goes, we're the same as this, but different this way. There's the one.
Speaker C: We're like a waffle maker. So what's the same but different?
Speaker B: Well, we are, we are like a wall, but it drains the fat. That, that to me was different.
Speaker C: Yeah, we're, we're, we're a way to cook stuff, but without the fat.
Speaker B: Drains the fat.
Speaker C: And so the, the enemy there is fat. The benefit. Yeah. Uh, you gotta, you gotta be able to say, oh, you know, here's, here's something you could apply. What is it that your product gets rid of that's harmful to your customer? Okay, what is it, what is it your product gets rid of that you're harmful to a customer?
Speaker B: Well, you then, you've talked about this. You then make that the villain.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Because I think a lot of brands, look, they try to solve their own problem.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: And make that the villain. But really what you're trying to do is make the problem the thing that's harmful to their customer. That's the villain. That's what you attack.
Speaker C: You know, I went down to the basement the other day, I had to. I had to punch a nail into the inside of a bookshelf. The inside of a bookshelf. Punched a little nail in so I could hang the bottom part of a movie screen for a family movie night. And I just happened to have. I don't even know where I got it. I happen to have a little short hammer. It's like literally like 4 inches. And I'm like, oh, perfect. So I get in there, I could actually take that hammer and sell a truckload of them and just call it the hammer for small spaces. Yeah, it's like you got a hammer, but do you have a hammer for small spaces? And then just show somebody losing their mind because they're under a, uh, kitchen sink trying to do something with a giant hammer and they're busting pipes and, you know, uh, and hitting themselves in the forehead.
Speaker B: Yeah. Ah.
Speaker C: That's the sort of thing that you want to think about. What's the thing that you're saving somebody from that you may have never thought of? You've got to find the thing that your customer is weary of, tired of trying to avoid, and talk about how your product is solving that problem for them and focus on that.
Speaker B: That's good. And we, there's so many examples we could go from. And we want to hear from you as you're listening to this. What are those funny, uh, camp commercials you remember or those annoying ones that you can't get out of your head? There's a ton. Leave us a comment on YouTube or on this podcast. But Don.
Speaker C: Yeah. What's the annoying messaging that you think is effective?
Speaker B: Yeah, but it's because they're clear. And I think that's the thing I'm walking away with, is having that clarity of what you are solving, that problem you're solving. And sometimes it needs to be a little annoying to get the attention of people.
Speaker C: Doesn't hurt, apparently.
Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you like the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messaging? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.
Speaker B: Mhm.
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