Boring Product, Great Ad: Tipp-Ex Channels Subservient Chicken

Ever watched a wild bear dancing to disco? Been longing to see a grizzly and a hunter fornicating in the woods? Thankfully now you can, courtesy of an interactive YouTube video campaign for European stationary brand Tipp-Ex, which launched in the U.K. today.

After viewing a YouTube video titled "A Hunter Shoots A Bear" - during which the former can't quite bring himself to pull the trigger - users are invited to re-write the encounter themselves, making virtual use of Tipp-Ex's ink correction products to white out the title of the video and fill in the blank with their own version of events. Perhaps you'd rather see the hunter kiss the bear, or propose to it, for example. Even R-rated requests are fulfilled, albeit with censorship.

A promoted video on YouTube's U.K. homepage is driving traffic to the experience, which has so far amassed over 100,000 views. Bloggers and news outlets are beginning to pick up on it, however, suggesting it has the potential to go viral and attract a considerably larger audience.

The creative itself draws influence from a number of similar efforts, including Old Spice's recent YouTube-based video response campaign, Burger King's classic Subservient Chicken, and even bear-based viral videos for tinned tuna brand John West.

Old Spice recently spent three days posting video responses on YouTube to questions posed through various social media channels. Tipp-Ex follows in a similar vein, but the video responses are pre-recorded and therefore immediately available for users to watch on demand. The range of scenarios is by no means exhaustive, but it's an impressive range of content given the fact users are free to suggest any scenario they wish.

Both Old Spice and Tipp-Ex's efforts were preceded by Burger King's Subservient Chicken site, which racked up a staggering 46 million hits in one week in 2004. That site, at subservientchicken.com, featured a chicken-suit-garbed person embodying the classic BK tagline, "Have it your way." In a nod to adult "cam" sites, users were invited to type commands for the bird, which it would then obey.

The Tipp-Ex brand is owned by BIC, which did not immediately reply to requests for comment.