Will It Blend?

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Tom Dickson blending golf balls on Will It Blend?
Tom Dickson blending golf balls on Will It Blend?

Will It Blend? is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of 30 second to 2 minute infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders. In the show Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend items in order to show off the power of his blender.

Contents

[edit] Structure

The show always starts with Tom Dickson asking: "Will it Blend? That is the question." A short theme tune begins and as it fades, Dickson begins with a brief introduction that leads up to the item or items that will be blended. They are dropped into the blender, a specific setting is chosen, and the blender proceeds to chop and blend the items.

At some point during the blending process, a subtitle appears stating whether or not the particular items are safe to blend at home (golf balls, marbles, and cubic zirconia, for example, are not safe, while credit cards, ice, and a McDonald's Extra Value Meal are safe to blend). Dickson frequently warns not to breathe the smoke or dust that results when blending unsafe items, as it could cause serious conditions such as silicosis. At the end of each video, the contents are emptied out, either onto a piece of cardboard or into a glass, at which point the subtitle "Yes, it blends!" appears.

One of the most famous Will it Blend? is the "cochicken", which is half of a chicken (cooked, usually rotisserie) blended with a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola (without the can). Although the show's example was blended with the bones (and thus was disclaimed as unsafe to blend), a boneless version was made on NBC's Today and fed to Meredith Vieira.

Popular fan requests for the show include blending either another blender or a crowbar. It is highly unlikely that either would blend or even be attempted. A demonstration video featuring the anticipated crowbar was interrupted by a cell phone, to which Dickson responds by stuffing the entire crew's cell phones into the blender and blending them instead [1]. The opening montage shows a clip of Dickson pushing what appears to be a crowbar into the blender, and the blade has stopped. The show has attempted to blend increasingly unlikely items, such as a six foot garden rake and a sealed can of soda.

[edit] Impact

The phrase Will it blend? has become an internet meme on sites such as Digg. Dickson has revealed that the campaign has been a great success for Blendtec:

The campaign took off almost instantly. We have definitely felt an impact in sales. Will it Blend has had an amazing impact to our commercial and our retail products. [2]

Blendtec now sells "Will It Blend?" merchandise, including a spoof shirt with the slogan "Tom Dickson is my Homeboy".

Dickson has made many national television appearances, including NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 30, 2007, on which he blended a rake handle in mere seconds.

[edit] Famous blended items

[edit] Famous Quotes

  • "[blended object] smoke. Don't breathe this..."
    • Variations: In the "glow sticks" episode, for the freeze frame, it showed Tom looking like he was drinking the glow stick juice, then it showed an illuminated skeleton saying "Don't drink this". In the "Chicken soup" episode, where he blends two boneless chicken breasts with chicken broth, he says, "Chicken soup smoke. You can breathe this."
  • "Will it blend? That is the question."
  • "Now, if we look at the destructions" (referring to the instructions for glow sticks about to be blended).
  • "If you find yourself fantasizing about throwing actual IT users into a blender, get help... they're heavy."

Tom Dickson also often gives a reason for his destruction of products such as poor golf game, needing to update his iPod, and his grandchildren leaving their toys out, (and humorously hurting his feet).

[edit] External links

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