Carhartt Uses Web to Riff on Wolf-Attack TV Ad

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Carhartt appears to be having fun remixing its first TV spot for the online medium.

The spot first appeared last week and pretends to show wolves attacking a guy clad in a Carhartt jacket and other gear. The company initially deemed it too frightening for TV, so debuted it on GetCarhartt.com. It appeared on ESPN later Monday with no complaints reported and will continue its run on ESPN, the History and Discovery Channels through mid December.

The TV buy was made in tandem with a digital campaign consisting of rich media and Flash banner ads on thousands of sites bought through ad networks Casale, Scan Scout and Collective Media.

The website allows users to view alternate endings to the TV spot, said Thadd Tucker, Carhartt’s director of e-commerce. Those endings have titles like "wolf growl," "panther," and "squirrel" that show additional images and sound effects of animals encountered by the human characters. Additionally, viewers can click hot spots on the video to pause it and display information about the Carhartt clothing worn in the ad.

The site also features Carhartt "wear stories" submitted by visitors who have the chance to win t-shirts and two $500 Carhartt wear prizes in a sweepstakes that runs through December.

One of the rich media ads encourages viewers to roll over the image of the wolf and fight it. Then, the image opens to a page that resembles the microsite, allowing viewers to watch the commercial, share their Carhartt stories, and enter the sweepstakes.

The campaign also includes a Facebook element that plays the commercial and posts viewer stories. Carhartt has more than 750,000 "likes" on the social networking site.

The campaign was created by TeamDetroit. Brad Carse, the agency’s group digital director says it's the first time Carhartt has used TV and a microsite.

Below is a YouTube version of the ad, lacking the interactivity of the one posted to Carhartt's site.