Slate discovered everyone’s favorite ad you ad apply directly to the forehead and uncovered the method, yes there is one, behind the madness! behind the madness! behind the madness!

After extensive focus group testing, the company found repetition far outpaced any other advertising method in terms of viewer recall. So that’s what they went for, with the sort of unbridled gusto usually reserved for bayonet enthusiasts in a slaughterhouse.

The product itself is a homeopathic topical gel that creates a cooling sensation after you slather it on your skin. Presumably, it could create similar arctic experiences if applied to other areas. This type of ambiguity might be the key to the product’s potential for success. While the in-house created ads are extremely specific as to where they want you to use the stick, at no point does they specify its benefits.

“A good way to get attention,” VP of sales Dan Charron told Slate, “is to not say what the product does. It touches on people’s curiosity.”

Charron said the company spent “tens of millions of dollars” in TV ad buys, so that people’s curiosity could be piqued over and over and over again until mid-August.

Small minds might think that the message, played out in gripping drama before a green background, will eventually suffer from that contempt bred by familiarity. There’s also a version in blue. Also, a red one, called “ActivOn” which you apply directly to the arthritic joint.

And FREEdHem, which you apply directly to the hemorrhoids, watch it after the jump…

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It’s a series of three commercials stitched together, the first is the green one we know and love, and then we have
the debutantes…

FREEdHem! Apply directly to the asshole!

“The Mesmerizing Ad for Headache Gel” [Slate]

Previously:
• Redux; Head On! Apply Directly to the Forehead!
• Head On!

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