Have you taken a selfie lately? If the answer is yes, then you're the target audience for this new over-the-top parody PSA from Pizza Hut.
The brand wants to warn you about the dangers of the selfie stick—a device that creates the unfortunate illusion for the user that (gasp!) other people, places and objects exist.
The spot is delightfully cheeky, and the spokeswoman brings the right mixture of faux-fear and faux-anger—she almost seems to be doing a homage to the former host of Unsolved Mysteries. It isn't until the end that you realize it is, in fact, an ad.
There's very little branding, except for the pizza delivery guy. Pizza Hut spokesman Doug Terfehr said that's because it's meant to be entertaining first and branded second.
The product being advertised, the two-foot-long Big Flavor Dipper pizza, "is so big that a regular out-stretched hand just won't do it. If you want to snap a photo of it, with you in it, you're going to need a bigger stick," Terfehr says. "It was a fun, lighthearted way to communicate that message."
The spot was created by Shareability, whose cofounder, Tim Staples, adds: "A lot of brands say they want to create shareable content but really what they want to do is make a traditional commercial go viral. That type of mind-set is a recipe for almost certain failure.
"Smart brands understand that you need to give the audience a valuable piece of content and then attach their brand in a clever and subtle way. Pizza Hut is a smart brand. The goal of this video is to start a conversation, not beat people over the head with a product message."