Will It Blend?

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Will It Blend? is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of 30 second to two minute infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various items in order to show off the power of his blender. Dickson started this marketing campaign after doing a blending attempt with a box of matches.^[1]

Contents 1 Structure 2 Impact 3 List of episodes 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Structure

The show almost always starts with Tom Dickson saying: "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 Blendtec Total 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. These show the subtitle "Don't try this at home". On the other hand, credit cards, ice, and a McDonald's Extra Value Meal are safe to blend. These show the subtitle "Please try this at home." While the item is being blended Dickson is smiling and waiting for the process to end. When it does, Dickson frequently warns viewers not to breathe the smoke or dust that results when blending unsafe items by saying "Don't breathe this!", 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 12 fluid ounces of Coca-Cola (without the can). Although the show's example was blended with the bones (and thus was disclaimed as unsafe to eat), 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, and this entails that neither would even be attempted, due to the nature and purpose of the show—marketing Blendtec products. 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. 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.

On one episode, Dickson placed a camcorder in the blender, giving viewers a first-person look inside the container while being blended. Shortly afterwards, the production team, Kels Goodman and Ray Hansen, attempted to return what was left of the camcorder to Best Buy, with no success.^[2] On another episode, an iPhone played the video intro before being blended. The resulting remains of the iPhone (which consist of powder and a mangled metal frame), along with a brand new Blendtec blender and a DVD compilation of the commercials, were placed for bidding on eBay and sold at $901 USD.

One of the most extreme episodes was when Dickson placed six Bic lighters in the blender. In a matter of seconds, the mixture of butane, metal and plastic ignited into a ball of fire inside the container. The scene was exaggerated by the addition of nuclear explosion film footage before one of the production crew sprayed a fire extinguisher on the still-operating blender.

Some episodes are produced to coincide with certain events. For example, three episodes aired during Super Bowl weekend. Due to trademark restrictions, the words "Super Bowl" were substituted with other words such as "Super Sunday," "The Big Game" or "That Last Football Game." The first episode had Dickson blend a smoothie out of salsa, tortilla chips, Buffalo wings and some Budweiser.^[3] The second and third episodes used two blenders to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl by blending miniature helmets (AFC vs. NFC)^[4] and foam footballs (Indianapolis Colts vs. Chicago Bears).^[5] To coincide with the release of the film Transformers, Dickson blended the Transformers toys Bumblebee and Swindle before challenging two of his grandchildren to transform the remains.^[6] When Dickson learned that The Beach Boys did not win Esquire Magazine's 2007 Esky Award, he blended the trophy.^[7] He also blended Guitar Hero 3 after finding no Beach Boys in it.

[edit] Impact

The phrase Will it blend? has become an internet meme on sites such as Digg.^[8] 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. [1]

Blendtec now sells "Will It Blend?" merchandise, including a spoof shirt with the slogan "Tom Dickson is my Homeboy".^[9]

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. Dickson also made his appearance in the History Channel series Modern Marvels. In the episode World's Strongest III aired March 6, 2008 the show ends with a special Will it Blend to prove if he can blend the channel's longest running series.

In April 2007 radio station KDRF (eD-FM) in Albuquerque, New Mexico enlisted Tom Dickson to do a Will It Blend version to promote the radio station. The three 30-second commercials show different styles of music CDs being blended, showcasing the station's variety format. The commercials aired on all Albuquerque TV stations over a 4 week period.^{[citation needed]}

Most blenders would break because their jugs are made out of glass or a weak brittle plastic because they are designed for food only. But a Blendtec Total Blender is very powerful, spins at 330mph (over 28,000 rpm) and the jug is made out of polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is used because glass or a brittle plastic would be more susceptible to breakage due to the blender's very high operation speed. Though the Total Blender is designed for food the Will it Blend? series demonstrate that virtually anything can be destroyed in one of these blenders.

In September 2007, the videos earned the second highest annual payout of about US$15000 from the video hosting service Revver.^[10]

As far as awards, WIll it Blend has been nominated for the 2007 YouTube award for Best Series, winner of .Net Magazine's 2007 Viral Video campaign of the year and winner of the Bronze level Clio Award for Viral Video in 2008.

Between YouTube and the Will it Blend Website, the program has now surpassed 100 million hits.

[edit] List of episodes

1. Marbles
2. Rake Handle
3. Chuck Norris and Badguys (Some action figures are blended, but the Chuck Norris figure emerges unblended from the bad guys dust)
4. "Extra Value Meal" (a mixture of a Big Mac, fries and a milkshake)
5. "Cochicken" (a mixture of Coca-Cola and chicken)
6. Ice (Blended into snow)
7. Golf Balls
8. Coke Can Smoothie (a mixture of a can of Coca-Cola and its contents and ice)
9. Credit Cards
10. The Movie (a mixture of a DVD, popping corn and a can of Coke)
11. Pens
12. Thanksgiving Dinner (Tom's toothless Uncle Floyd came over for dinner and Tom blended his serving of Thanksgiving dinner for him. He started with a turkey leg because Floyd preferred dark meat. Afterwards, he poured in a bowl of cranberries, and a slice of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream. Finally, he sprinkled in some salt and pepper for taste.)
13. Bottled Beverage
14. Tilapia -O- Matic (Tom places a frozen fish into the blender half filled with water and blends the fish)
15. Oysters
16. Crowbar (Does not blend crowbar, eventually just blends cell phones.)
17. 3 Hockey pucks
18. Real-Time Compilation (Video made as a bet that no stop motion, mirrors, or other tricks were used to make the other videos. This video showed the blending of light bulbs, golf balls, and a rake handle. The light bulbs were blended in 11 seconds, the golf balls in 30 seconds, and the rake handle in 10 seconds.)
19. iPod (Dickson blends an iPod.)
20. Coffee Beans (Dickson shows that the blender can be used to grind coffee beans as opposed to a coffee grinder.)
21. Nutcracker with nuts
22. 53 Toy Cars (Dickson woke up having stepped on all the toy cars left out by his grandchildren, so he blended them all to teach them a lesson. This video showed the subtitle "Kids, Don't Try This At Home!")
23. Christmas Dinner (Toothless Uncle Floyd from the Thanksgiving Dinner video was returning for Christmas dinner, so Dickson once again blended up his meal. He blended a Cornish Game Hen which weighed 2 pounds, a raw yam, and a few pieces of fruitcake. He also poured in eggnog.)
24. 2 Barbie Dancing Princess Dolls
25. Cassette Tapes (TDK cassette tapes)
26. A can of Campbell's Tomato Soup
27. Light bulbs
28. Golf Club (Dickson needs help on his "short-shot" , so he blends and destroys the handle of his driver.)
29. Blending granulated sugar into powdered sugar
30. "Workout in a Blender" (a mixture of a Winsor Pilates workout DVD video, tofu, a protein bar, Yoplait yogurt, and a Slim-Fast shake)
31. "Dental hygiene Surprise" (a mixture of toothpaste, dental floss, mouthwash and a toothbrush)
32. Pickled Pig's Feet
33. Ceramic Magnets (incorrectly described as neodymium magnets)
34. Tape measure
35. "S***r B**l Smoothie" (a mixture of salsa, 13 buffalo chicken wings, tortilla chips and a can of Budweiser)
36. "S***r B**l Conference Blend-Off" (two blenders blend small plastic football helmets, one set representing the AFC and the other one the NFC.)
37. "S***r B**l Blend-Off" (A NERF football is placed in each of the two blenders, one representing the Indianapolis Colts and one the Chicago Bears.)
38. Cubic Zirconia (purposefully described as diamonds)
39. "Annoying Valentine Gift" (A stuffed toy that looks like a red devil holding a heart that reads "Be Mine". It moves its arms, legs and mouth as it sings Mah Nà Mah Nà and also has flashing red antennae. Dickson blends the toy as it is singing.)
40. 12 Glow Sticks
41. A Can of Campbell's chicken soup
42. Toilet Plunger (Dickson says the flat blades and square blending chamber pull food into the blender, so there is no need for spoons, spatulas, or plungers. He then proceeds to blend a plunger.)
43. Healthy Green Drink (Dickson blends 2 cans of Dole pineapple juice without the cans, spinach, a single cube of pineapple with the eye so it can "see what will happen", some flax seed, a banana without the peel, and some ice.)
44. "Will It Blend? LIVE!
45. Video Camera (Dickson connects a data cable to the camcorder so viewers can see what happens inside the blending chamber during blending.)
46. Baseball
47. Esky Award (Dickson was mad that The Beach Boys did not win Esquire Magazine's 2007 Esky Award, so he proceeded to blend one.)
48. Makeup
49. A 15-foot garden hose
50. Tiki Torch
51. Will It Blend? On The Road.
52. "Toilet Flusher Thingy." (A flapper valve, float pump and flushing handle of a toilet are blended together into powder.)
53. Transformers Toys (Dickson's grandchildren ask him to transform his Transformers and he does so-in a Blentec Blender.) [2]
54. "Carny Cuisine" (2 corn dogs, French's mustard without the bottle, pink cotton candy and a cherry Snow cone with the cone are blended. The resulting smoothie did not taste good. It would also have been hazardous to drink due to the blended paper cone and wooden corn dog sticks.)
55. EZ Cheese
56. iPhone (Dickson sold the remains of the iPhone, consisting of powder and a mangled frame on eBay.)
57. Spam (Dickson blended canned Spam with 3 extra-large eggs. The canned Spam was a pun on Internet spam as Dickson was annoyed at all the spam in his inbox.
58. 6 Bic Cigarette Lighters
59. Video camera Part 2: The Return (The producers attempt to return the blended camcorder to Best Buy. They do not succeed because having blended the camera was considered customer abuse.)
60. Cricut (In this video, Tom got his wife a Cricut set and blended all her old scissors, dies and punches.)
61. Guitar Hero Gibson X-Plorer controller (Dickson buys a copy of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock at the request of his 27 grandchildren. After realizing the game does not have any Beach Boys songs, he decided to blend the controller. Because the controller is too big for the blender, he destroys it and blends the neck of the guitar before setting the remains on fire.
62. Halo 3 (Dickson gets mad at the fact that his 4 and 5 year old grandchildren beat him at Halo 3, so he takes away the game and blends the game disc.)
63. Picket Sign (Dickson realizes that his producer/writer is on strike, and he has nothing to blend; so he runs to the front of the office and grabs his producer's picket sign. He then blends the picket sign's handle and crumples up the sign.)
64. Blend the Vote (Dickson blends a toy donkey and elephant to help decide the outcome of the 2008 election.)
65. 1 Million Volt Stun Gun (Episode Title "Don't Blend Me Bro")
66. Full Strength smoothie inventor Shawn Phillips (Phillips was not actually blended, he made a smoothie in the blender)
67. Hearing Aids (His uncle, Floyd, needed new hearing aids).
68. Remote Controls (Dickson buys a universal remote, and has no need for the rest of them. He also starts the blender with the remote.)
69. Rubik's Cube
70. Wii Remote (Uncle Floyd was bowling in Wii Sports when the wrist strap of the Wii Remote snapped and destroyed the TV. So, Dickson took the strapless Wii Remotes and blended them before giving him a new one and instating a wrist strap rule.)
71. Dickson bought Grand Theft Auto 4, wanting to steal a 1968 Mustang GT390. He blended it, after realizing that the 1968 GT390 is not on there.
72. Dickson blended Weezer's new album and a can of pork and beans, in a reference to Weezer's hit single "Pork and Beans."
73. Dickson blended the Wii Wheel, after breaking it while playing Mario Kart

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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Will It Blend? official site—contains Will It Blend? episodes, the Will It Blog? and a form to fill out to request various items to be blended for future episodes.
• Blendtec's Youtube Profile
• Blendtec site (home blenders)
• Blendtec site (commercial blenders)
• Interview of George Wright, from Blendtec