On June 14, 2013, Superman makes his triumphant return to the big screen in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. For a superhero junkie like myself, this is a movie that I am both extremely excited about (fantastic cast featuring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe and Laurence Fishburne; directed by the guy who did Watchmen and 300; produced by Christopher Nolan; scored by Hans Zimmer), and extremely nervous about (in my honest opinion, there has never been a good Superman movie – they are either entirely too campy, or waaaaaaay too slow). But, knowing my love for all things superhero, I will definitely be there opening night.
However, the merits of this movie is not what I’m going to talk about today. Instead, I am going to talk about a marketing campaign that popped up leading up to the final weeks of the movie that was sparked by none other than Conan O’Brien.
The hype for this movie has jumped into overdrive as, since Iron Man 3 is now out of the way, movie goers can now focus on Superman. A few weeks back, the following trailer was released for the movie (and it is fantastic):
Fanboys went crazy in response to this trailer, because it looks like the world is finally getting a decent Superman movie. However, one fanboy in particular (Conan O’Brien), was extremely concerned about a gaping plot hole that is featured in the trailer. Check out his video response that he posted shortly after it’s release:
Clearly O’Brien (being a comedian) was just trying to be funny and wasn’t really concerned with how Superman would shave his super beard. One would think this is where the story would end.
One would be wrong.
Apparently, the people at Gillette saw this video, and turned it into a marketing campaign to not only promote the movie, but their brand of razors as well. They developed a website called “How Does He Shave,” where they have brought together several different people (comic writer Kevin Smith, scientist Bill Nye, and the guys from MythBusters, among others) to provide their own professional theories on how Superman might shave his beard.
People are encouraged to vote for their favorite theory, and even give their own using special hashtags on Twitter. And, of course, the website has a section for you to look like the Man of Steel by purchasing razors and other shaving equipment.
This is an example of people jumping on something in pop culture (the video by Conan) and making it their own to get people talking about their product. Will this necessarily get more people to buy more Gillette products? Maybe, maybe not. But it has successfully gotten people to talk about them, and it has partnered them with one of the most talked about movies of the year, so it is a slam dunk, in my opinion.
Click the link above to check out the videos – they are pretty humorous. Let me know how you think Superman shaves in the comments section below!
Viral Infection 
Man, my Internet is too slow to start the Gillette stuff at the moment but I like the MythBusters so.. I think it is awesome.
My only problem with the campaign was that they did a teaser for the campaign. you could watch the overview video a full week before the four individual theory videos went live. It was confusing and annoying. Now that it’s fully live, I think it’s awesome. They chose four great personalities, though I find it surprising that the most ridiculous theory comes from the Mythbusters. I also didn’t know Blossom grew up to become a doctor!