Fake mustaches,
and not just for laughs
Handed out on campuses for 'The Cleveland Show'
By Toni Fitzgerald
Sep 29, 2009
College students are inundated by giveaways, from branded T-shirts to Frisbees and key chains, and most end up in the trash.
The challenge in targeting campuses is to come up with a giveaway that will survive the Dumpster test.
It should be different, clever--and make people laugh.
That was the idea behind a recent campaign on college campuses for Fox's new animated comedy "The Cleveland Show." In addition to some of the old standards like towels and bumper stickers, Fox street teams handed out fake mustaches.
Students could wear them, as they did, drawing laughs from their friends, but more importantly they ended up on dorm mirrors and doors and on backpacks, serving as long-term reminders of the new show.
"The mustache is one of Cleveland Brown's trademarks, and we thought it would be fun, hilarious and in the tone of the show to pass these out -- not to mention they are a great, funny visual and a definite conversation starter," says Fox's Shannon Ryan.
"The Cleveland mustaches were an instant hit. As soon as they were distributed, the fans were sporting them and asking for extras for their friends and roommates."
The mustaches were part of a larger alternative media campaign by the network to promote the premiere of the show, a spinoff of "Family Guy" that debuted on Sunday.
Fox wanted to target teens, men 18-34 and adults 18-34 with the campaign, and it decided to focus on colleges.
The show begins with titular character Cleveland moving from Quahog, R.I., to Stoolbend, Va. Fox decided to use the image of the move for its campaign, sending three wrapped 16-foot moving vans along with street teams dressed in mover jumpsuits to college campuses in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.
The trucks had some attitude too. They show the Cleveland character's head against a purple background with the show's name written in purple over a swath of yellow.
Written in white is one of the show's subversive catchphrases, "Honk if you enjoy having relations." The actor who voices Cleveland, Mike Henry, was recorded saying the phrase, which was blared out on the vans' loudspeakers. The loudspeakers also played the "Cleveland" theme song.
The street teams handed out various items, including the usual keychains and bumper stickers but also the mustaches, which were a hit with both sexes.
"The mustache is definitely an equal-opportunity giveaway," says Ryan. "I think the girls got an even bigger kick out of wearing them than the guys did."
The campaign took place Sept. 19 to 26, and the teams hit every high-traffic event they could find, including college football games.
The stunt worked for two reasons. First, it mirrored the idea behind the show: The moving vans fit in with Cleveland's move not only to Virginia but also from "Family Guy" to his own spinoff.
But the campaign also worked because Fox added that unexpected element of a mustache giveaway, something that will stick in students' minds much longer than a more mundane giveaway that has little to do with the brand being promoted.
The gimmickry seemed to work. Sunday's "Cleveland" premiere drew the highest ratings for any new show this season among adults 18-49, and an impressive 22 percent of all men 18-34 watching television at 8:30 p.m. Sunday were watching the show.
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