Why That Worked #36: Annoying Ads—The Dumbest Campaigns That Won Your Attention and Made Millions (RE-RELEASE)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Marketing Made Simple — Why That Worked #36: “Annoying Ads—The Dumbest Campaigns That Won Your Attention and Made Millions”

Date: September 10, 2025
Hosts: Donald Miller & Kyle Reed
Producer: Bobby Richards
Podcast: Why That Worked (presented by StoryBrand AI)

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Overview

In this episode, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed explore the unexpectedly powerful impact of marketing campaigns that are “weird, annoying, or dumb”—yet massively successful. Using examples like Head On, Chia Pet, and the George Foreman Grill, they break down why annoyingly repetitive, ultra-simple messaging can work wonders (and what often goes wrong when marketers over-complicate things). The episode underlines the core StoryBrand principles of clarity, succinctness, and actionable communication, demonstrating that sometimes being “a little annoying” is exactly what it takes to stick in the minds of consumers and drive results.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Makes an “Annoying” Ad Work?

• Head On — The Iconic Example
  • Memorable Tagline: “Head on. Apply directly to the forehead.” (03:46)
  • Ridiculously repetitive, high-pitched, and grating.
  • Ultra-low production — “No major ad agency involved. Dirt, dirt cheap, right?” (05:12 - Donald)
  • Didn’t over-explain: the ad infers the product's use (headache), trusting customers to understand without burning “calories” figuring it out.
  • Result: “Sales increased by 234%...from 1.9 million to 6.3 million per year.” (03:52 - Kyle)
• Annoyance as a Feature, Not a Bug
  • “The reason was it was so fricking annoying and startling. … It was that kind of voice, I mean, really kind of brilliant.” (04:31 - Donald)
  • Most ads are ignored; these are too grating to tune out.
  • Memorability over subtlety: “Stamped into my subconscious.” (09:22 - Donald)

2. The Dangers of Over-Explanation

• Many brands over-nuance their messaging, weakening impact.
• Donald’s advice: “I call it over enlightening. When you're over enlightening the customer, you're actually moving them away from sales…” (05:12)
• Instead: “What can we say that 100% of people will actually hear? … Keep it short, make it high-pitched…repeat it.” (08:21 - Donald)

3. Chia Pet — Economy of Message & Objection Handling

• Tagline & Approach: “Ch, ch, ch, Chia. … The pottery that grows.” (14:09 - Ad audio)
  • Instantly memorable, fun, and succinct.
  • They give a simple, actionable plan in the ad—soak, plant, water.
  • Overcame subconscious objections directly: “If I buy this, …I’m not going to buy this because I don't understand how it works or whether it will work for me. … in the ad, they overcome that.” (16:01 - Donald)
• Results: “$300 million in annual revenue at their peak.” (16:53 - Kyle)

4. The George Foreman Grill — One Clear Villain

• Core Message: “Knocks out the fat.” (21:42 - George Foreman ad; 21:50 - Donald)
  • Infomercials led with this health benefit; demonstrations focused on fat visibly draining.
  • Leveraged celebrity credibility (“It’s so good, I put my name on it.”) and simple, repeated visual proof.
• Results: “120 million units globally…sales skyrocketed from $5 million…to $400 million six years later.” (24:09–24:16 - Donald)

5. Translating Annoying Ads to Your Brand

• Identify the One Differentiator: “People believe that when something is the same but different, it works better.” (06:53 - Donald)
• Clarify What You Solve: “What's the thing that you're saving somebody from that you may have never thought of?” (29:39 – Donald)
• Don’t Explain What’s Obvious: “Don’t use the words explaining what people already understand. Use the words explaining what they don’t.” (19:21 - Donald)
• Make the Problem the Villain: “What is it that your product gets rid of that’s harmful to your customer?...You then make that the villain.” (28:28–28:46 - Donald & Kyle)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Head On’s Annoying Simplicity

“You listen to that and your stress levels go. You cannot ignore that. …So I think there's some things to learn here.” (06:53 - Donald)

On Over-Explaining

“I call it over enlightening. When you're over enlightening the customer, you're actually moving them away from sales…” (05:12 - Donald)

On the Art of Memorization in Ads

“A good marketing campaign will cause your client, your potential customer to memorize your offer.” (18:33 - Donald)

On the Success of Simplicity

“What can we say that 100% of people will actually hear? ...Keep it short, make it high-pitched, put it in a panic-inducing voice and fricking repeat it.” (08:21 - Donald)

On Chia Pet’s Accessible Simplicity

“The pottery that grows. Now that all sounds like super simple, like nobody thought about it....It sounds easy, but it wasn’t.” (14:44 - Donald)

On George Foreman Grill’s Breakout Message

“Knock out the fat is worth all that money. And George Foreman was absolutely worth 40.” (25:52 - Donald)

On Application for All Brands

“What would you copy if you were a brand?...It's the same but different. It's the finding that one thing…We're the same as this, but different this way.” (28:10 - Kyle)

Summing Up the Episode’s Core Takeaway

“Having that clarity of what you are solving, that problem you're solving. And sometimes it needs to be a little annoying to get the attention of people.” (30:14 - Kyle)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Intro & Episode Framing: [00:00–01:27]
• Head On Commercial & Analysis: [02:12–12:42]
• What Killed Head On’s Simplicity: [09:39–12:42]
• Chia Pet Commercial & Analysis: [13:47–19:56]
• Chia Pet’s Revenue and Key Tactics: [16:53–19:56]
• Discussion on Simplicity, Objections, and Messaging: [19:56–21:03]
• George Foreman Grill Ad & Analysis: [21:08–28:28]
• The Importance of Taglines (‘Knock Out the Fat’): [26:54–27:24]
• Brand Application & Final Takeaways: [28:28–30:14]

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Actionable Insights

• Resist the urge to over-explain. Trust your customer’s intelligence and focus on what’s truly different, not a laundry list of features.
• Create memorability through repetition and simplicity. Don’t be afraid to be a little “annoying” if it means you become unforgettable.
• Frame your differentiator around what you remove or solve for the customer. Make that pain point the villain your product defeats.
• Give customers a clear plan—or show them they don’t need one. Like Chia Pet did, directly address any subconscious objections.
• Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Don’t let success tempt you into “nuancing” away your core, clear message.

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Closing Thought

The hosts urge marketers to strip back their messaging, identify (and obsessively repeat) the single most compelling reason a customer should care, and sometimes—even at the risk of irritation—make it impossible to forget. Sometimes, the “dumbest” ideas really are the smartest way to capture attention and drive sales.

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For more episodes and resources, subscribe to Why That Worked and check out StoryBrand AI for instantly clear messaging.

Transcript

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, hero makers, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards. I'm jumping in to share with you a new episode of our brand new podcast, why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI with Donald Miller back in the host seat. Now, since we launched Marketing Made simple, we've been so grateful to have everybody tune in each week to learn how to make your marketing easy and make it work. Which is exactly why we're sharing new episodes of the why that Worked podcast here. In the old Marketing Made simple feedback, but only for a limited time. Each episode of the new show is gonna deliver actionable insights and key takeaways that are all designed so you can implement them to help make whatever you're working on work. Now, here's the deal. Like I said, this is only for a limited time. If you wanna catch new episodes early, you can watch or listen every Monday. To watch the show, just go subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel. And to listen, go follow why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI wherever you enjoy your podcasts. All right, that's it for me. So grateful you're here. And enjoy this week's episode of why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI. You're listening to the why that Work podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.

[Kyle Reed]

Welcome back to the why that Worked podcast, where we look at messaging campaigns that worked, why they worked, and how you can apply those ideas to your business. Today, we are talking about weird, annoying marketing campaigns that worked, that worked. Like this one, Cha Cha Cha Chia. Do you remember that?

[Donald Miller]

Oh, how could you forget one you bought? Have you ever bought one? No, I bought one. I think I bought one as a kid.

[Kyle Reed]

I was like, if only they're fun.

[Donald Miller]

Stocking stuffers as a kid. You're right. It's a great kid stocking stuff.

[Kyle Reed]

And I really wanted an ant farm, but that's not what we're talking about. I just thought an ant farm was cool.

[Donald Miller]

Now that I'm a parent, I get the whole like, let's leave the ants.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, let's leave it outside. Which makes total sense. But you brought one up to me I'd never heard of. You kept saying it to me, apply.

[Donald Miller]

To the head, head on.

[Kyle Reed]

I had to look it up. And I've Got to play it for.

[Donald Miller]

People who, you know now that now this is going to be one of those things. You're going to play it. And if you're older than about. How old are you?

[Kyle Reed]

38.

[Donald Miller]

If you're older than like 43, I'm guessing right in there falls, you know.

[Kyle Reed]

In the 70s, you'll get this. If it's.

[Donald Miller]

I think it's like a 20, I think it was like 25 years ago.

[Kyle Reed]

It looks like that. And you got to. We're going to play this right now. You'll hear it, but you also have to go see it. So go to our YouTube.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, go to YouTube.

[Kyle Reed]

You'll see the ad itself. Let me play the Head on commercial. Really? Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.

[Donald Miller]

Head On.

[Kyle Reed]

Apply directly to the forehead.

[Donald Miller]

Head On.

[Kyle Reed]

Apply directly to the forehead. Head on is available without a prescription at retailers nationwide.

[Donald Miller]

Hundreds of millions of dollars. Hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Kyle Reed]

You have to go see it because it's just a woman rubbing something on her head, like a headache relief. That's it.

[Donald Miller]

What's amazing is she doesn't say what it's about.

[Kyle Reed]

No.

[Donald Miller]

But, you know, you, you kind of infer that it's a headache medicine. It's a differentiator. You know, you don't take a pill. You apply it to the forehead. It's her showing you how to do it. That whole campaign is a lot of what we talk about at storybrand in terms of not making the customer think it's. Why explain something that they already understand.

[Kyle Reed]

And they just repeat it over and over, which I think is super smart.

[Donald Miller]

And get your. That would play up, by the way. That would play on the radio and it would come up on television, that exact commercial. And it was constant. And I don't know what happened with the company. I don't know if it's like poor leadership, whatever. They made hundreds of millions of dollars on that. Do we have any numbers on that?

[Kyle Reed]

So here's what happened when they ran that campaign. It was about. In 2005, when they ran that, the sales increased by 234%. So their average revenue per year was $1.9 million.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, so that's 6.3. Tiny company.

[Kyle Reed]

Very tiny.

[Donald Miller]

Making a knockoff to Tylenol.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

Or whatever.

[Kyle Reed]

Invest a lot of money to make ibuprofen by commercial space, you know, to run ads. And they increased by 234%.

[Donald Miller]

I'm curious, because that would be, you know, so they went from 2 million to about 6 point something million. I wonder what Their ad spend on. Now here's the thing, extremely low production.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

On the, on the ad. Probably bought ad space for like, I mean it's television, right? But at the same time where they were buying ads and how short those ads were, I mean you're literally talking under a hundred bucks to buy those ads. So it probably wasn't as expensive as you think. It was ridiculously memorable. And the reason was it was so fricking annoying and startling. It was like, buckle your seatbelt, you know, Buckle your seatbelt. Accident imminent. Bucket your seat. Plane going down. Plane going down. It was that kind of like voice, I mean, really kind of brilliant.

[Kyle Reed]

Don, you seem to like the campaign. What, what can we apply from that?

[Donald Miller]

Why is this really annoying? Well, let's just, let's be honest here. Let's talk about the fact that dirt, dirt cheap, right? No major ad agency involved. Couple things about the campaign. One is they didn't over explain and this is a massive problem with owners and founders of companies they just frickin own. I was just with somebody, I won't name them. They were at the house, we were talking about their campaign and I would say, what about this tagline? They said, well that doesn't quite cover it because blah, blah, blah. Literally my eyes are glazing over as this guy is explaining the ridiculously nuanced truths about his product. And I can't stand it. Not only that this person's wife was with them and the person's wife literally said he did this to a waiter today. And you could see the waiter trying to get away. And I'm like, this is exactly. I call it over enlightening. When you're over enlightening the customer, you're actually moving them away from sales, right? If I hand you, it's not a jar, whatever, a stick of head on, right? If I say apply directly to the forehead, you're inferring that one. This is some sort of headache medicine. The lady on the ad looks like she has a headache. So now you don't have to say it. You're not asking the customer to burn any calories to understand that this solves a headache. You're really emphasizing the differentiator between this and Tylenol or a pill that you take. So now I go, okay, I apply this head rather than this. People believe that when something is the same but different, it works better.

[Kyle Reed]

That's good.

[Donald Miller]

It's a headache medicine, but it's different. So therefore it's going to work better. But, but you don't have to explain it. The second. Is that annoyingly high pitched, panic inducing. You listen to that and your stress levels go. You cannot ignore that. How many television commercials do you ignore as soon as they come on?

[Kyle Reed]

98% of them.

[Donald Miller]

That's right. You're not going to ignore this because it's going to be grating on your nerves. There's something that's kind of brilliant about that. So I think there's some things to learn here. But let me just ask you this as a thought exercise to all of our listeners. If you had to say something like this about your brand. You know, if I had to say, what I would say is don't go bankrupt, clarify your marketing message. Don't go bankrupt, clarify your marketing message. Don't go bankrupt, clarify your marketing message. So I'm being annoying and I'm getting my message into the brain of that. I'm shoving it into their ears, into their brain where they have to process the idea. I'm not saying everybody needs to do this. I'm just saying that's why it worked.

[Kyle Reed]

But there's a principle inside of it. I think that it's so easy to go over nuanced in your marketing. You know, you talk about this with your website where you go into your whole family history and you know you can.

[Donald Miller]

Our, our brand started 75 years ago when my grandfather. Blah, blah, blah.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep. And it. And it. They head on could have gotten nuanced. It's a. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

There's a different acetaminophen in our thing and it absorbs through the skin much better than the now think. Let's stop here.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep.

[Donald Miller]

It absorbs through the skin much faster than a pill. The fillers in a pill eventually clog up your arteries. You know, whatever. All the nuanced reasons, they literally go. If we say that, which is an amazing thing to say, nobody will listen. What can we say that 100% of people will actually hear? That's the controlling idea behind this. What can we say that nobody will be literally able to tune out. They're gonna have to hear us. Keep it short, make it high pitched, put it in a panic inducing voice and fricking repeat it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep, yep.

[Donald Miller]

And that I'm just sitting there going, that's genius. And you know what they paid that ad agency? Nothing.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep. It's so true. And I think the thing that's so fascinating about it is like the ad so quick that you can't really process. You're really just sitting there going, oh, I have a headache. I'd Love relief. But you can't think about the utility of it because once you start breaking, you're like, wait, you rub it on your. It goes through. How does that work?

[Donald Miller]

Well, Kyle, not only this, I haven't heard that ad in 25 years. And when we came up with this idea, annoying ads that work, I literally went head on. Apply to forehead. Head on. It was stamped into my subconscious.

[Kyle Reed]

If it's so successful, why don't they exist anymore?

[Donald Miller]

Well, I did some research on that because I wanted to make sure that I didn't look like a fool here. Head on was actually. The founding company was Morales Healthcare. It's a Florida based company. And According to Storybrand AI the product was gained notoriety in 2006 because of its minimalist and repetitive advertising, which became a viral sensation. And you ready? They sold it. So they made a truckload of money. And the people they sold it to in 2008, two years later, were called Sirvision. And under Sirvision's ownership, the product was reformulated. Problem number one to. To include herbal ingredients while maintaining its homeopathic positioning. So I guarantee you what happened with Survision is they went nuanced. Yeah, they took something that was steaming hot and they said, let's make it better. But in order to explain how it's better, you're gonna lose all the efficacy of the simple campaign. So one, they sold it to somebody else. The geniuses who scaled it up sold it to somebody who changed the strategy. That's one thing. Is it still sold today? It is available on the market, but it's largely faded from public consciousness. It's primarily marketed as a homeopathic remedy, which is not how it was introduced. And so when you try to change something like that, it's not gonna work. They've also got, according to AI, there's four things. Lack of proven efficacy. They never had case studies that really proved that it worked. There was a marketing shift, the viral success of commercials. They stopped doing that. I think they could probably bring it back, but I guarantee these people are too snooty to do that. Right. Like what homeopathic company wants to annoy the heck out of everybody listening to the radio or watching tv. Regulatory pressure. Thanks, big government. Thanks for making sure things work before we actually sell them. Early claims about headache relief were removed following objections from the Better Business Bureau.

[Kyle Reed]

That's not fun. Let's just find out later.

[Donald Miller]

Well, it was working fine to make money. Better Business Bureau. We're kidding. Of course we're kidding. Leaving the product with Little more than a memorable tagline. Very memorable. By the way. Niche market as a homeopathic product with questionable efficacy Head on appeals to a limited audience. Today, a bunch of hippie homeschool moms. That's all that's left.

[Kyle Reed]

That's what storybrand AI said.

[Donald Miller]

No, that was me adding editorial comment. I love way to kill a brand.

[Kyle Reed]

But I love the beginning of the brand because they, they said, what's the problem our customers facing and how do we solve it and how do we make it as simple as possible?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, I love it. Maybe one of the better examples ever, ever of just simple. Almost. Let's be almost too simple. I mean.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, well, once it stood up to probably some testing, it didn't make it.

[Donald Miller]

Tired of taking pills? Tired of taking pills for your headache? Apply this to your forehead.

[Kyle Reed]

You know that's it.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Problem is it doesn't work.

[Kyle Reed]

So. Okay, but don't take us up on if it works or not.

[Bobby Richards]

If you don't communicate clearly, all your emails, your website, social media posts, everything you're communicating will be ignored. Storybrand AI is like the world's best communication expert writing it for you. Imagine having the world's best communicator writing your tagline. Just type in the name of your company, answer a few prompts and voila. Hey, that's a good one. Use it to write your social media posts, website, wireframe emails, lead generating PDF, product or service descriptions, anything you need for your business. What would happen to your revenue if every word that left your business was crystal clear and worth paying attention to? StoryBrand AI is your competitive advantage so you'll know you'll say it clearly. Try it right now and let us write your custom tagline for free at story. StoryBrand AI. And now back to the show.

[Kyle Reed]

So this episode is all about annoying marketing and messaging.

[Donald Miller]

That's right. That was one of them.

[Kyle Reed]

So that was one of them. Another one we have to talk about.

[Donald Miller]

Is that we like a lot more.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes, the Chia Pet.

[Donald Miller]

All right, let's play that one. Chia Pets, the pottery that grows. And now there's the Chia Gnome, Chia spongebob, and everyone's favorite gal, Chia hello Kitty. It's fun. Soak your Chia. Spread the seeds, water and watch it grow.

[Kyle Reed]

Ch, Ch, Chia.

[Donald Miller]

There's even Chia Alex and Chia Marty. So many Chia Pets, you can collect them all. Chia Pets, the pottery that grows.

[Kyle Reed]

Ch, ch, ch, Chia. There's so many.

[Donald Miller]

Who's Chia Alex?

[Kyle Reed]

Collect them all.

[Donald Miller]

What's Chia Alex?

[Kyle Reed]

No idea.

[Donald Miller]

They tried to make their own character. They did a whole lot, a whole lot of good going on there. I mean, so much really effective messaging. It's going to be hard to make a long enough list.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, go for it.

[Donald Miller]

Think about how. Think about how economic.

[Kyle Reed]

Sorry.

[Donald Miller]

Think about how economical that messaging is. And what I mean by that is an economy of words. Very, very, very, very succinct messaging. The pottery that grows. Now that all sounds like super simple, like nobody thought about it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

The pottery that grows is actually a way of describing something. Now you do need to see the visual on it where you see those sprouts coming out of the thing and making hair.

[Kyle Reed]

They never went that fast, but yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, you had them.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. They never, Never maybe. I think so, if I remember.

[Donald Miller]

Never work in seconds.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, yeah, the way. They never worked the way kind of like head on. It never worked like that.

[Donald Miller]

I can tell that you were six when you got your first Chia Pet. You're like, well, it's supposed to be growing. No, it takes a minute. But you know, the pottery that grows, a great way to describe it. Another thing that they did. And then let's also catch the ch. Ch. Chia. They are literally branding and causing you to memorize a tagline or a name of a product. Right? Cha cha, Chichiya. Cha cha cha. It gets stuck in your brain. That is really freaking brilliant and actually a little bit hard to accomplish. Then did you notice there was a plan in the app?

[Kyle Reed]

Yes, I was going to bring that up. They give the steps, I think it was three or four steps of just add water. All the things.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, Plant the seed, add the water.

[Kyle Reed]

I noticed that too, because again, I'm always in the story, brand, framework, mindset.

[Donald Miller]

Let's talk about what that's doing. It's like, okay, it's the pottery that grows. It's called Chia Pet. They're available in a bunch of different things. And then the cognitive dissonance. Okay, If I buy this, the subconscious mind says, I'm not going to buy this because I don't understand how it works or whether it will work for me. And literally in the ad, they overcome that. They overcome a subconscious objection. Nobody would actually say that's their objection, but it is. And they overcome it in the ad. Plant the seeds, water the frickin thing, you know, put it in sunlight, you know, whatever those. That plan was. And now you go, oh, I can do that. And so you end up buying it. And by the way, making Truckloads of money. Do you have the report on how much they're actually.

[Kyle Reed]

So they. When they ran this, this translated to $300 million in annual revenue at their peak mackerel. $300 million just selling something that grows the pot.

[Donald Miller]

Well, they're selling pottery that grows. I don't think it's the sort of grass you can mow, but I would imagine that it's actually like, like you could trim it. They have Budding Buddies. By the way, one of my favorite movies of all time is Step Brothers.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

When I just need a good stupid laugh. They actually have Will Ferrell.

[Kyle Reed]

That's a good marketing.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, Budding Buddies kind of.

[Kyle Reed]

We were talking earlier about Chia Pet. Some of the things they did right in a commercial. They also introduced characters that you could by our identity.

[Donald Miller]

I was curious, what would you think of the square, square pants spongebob thing? Because they probably had to pay some money for that.

[Kyle Reed]

Oh, I'm sure there's a license, which was probably a good move for them from a business standpoint to start licensing out some characters. Yeah, I think you called it out while we were watching it. The mistake they made was they tried to introduce their own characters. I think that was, I mean the.

[Donald Miller]

The actual hedgehog was their own character, but who the heck is Alex?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, that's. It's, it's cheaper obviously for them to make their own. But just licensing out, you know, SpongeBob and your favorite characters on TV. I mean imagine if they. Well, they probably are still around, but if they're doing all the Disney princesses and, or all the, you know, the, the things that, that kids watch these days.

[Donald Miller]

You can't beat the, you can't beat the original Chia Pet. I literally, I literally just bought one while we were sitting here talking. I love that I bought the original one because I'm Emmeline's going to love.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, we, we should set up a live feed of watching it and you can check in and watch and see how it develops. Alright, so Chia Pet nailed it. Let's talk about another one.

[Donald Miller]

And let's real quick though, summarizing what you can Apply memorization, the art of marketing. A good marketing campaign will cause your client, your potential customer to memorize your offer. They define. We always talk about passing the grunt test. What do you offer? How will it make my life better and what do I need to do to buy it? That short radio ad or whatever that television ad covers that. What do you offer? I offer pottery that grows. Now think about how hard. How long it took for them to figure out how to explain that. I mean, it sounds easy, but it wasn't.

[Kyle Reed]

It wasn't at the time.

[Donald Miller]

Novelty, right? It's called a Chia Pet. They caused me to memorize that. Endless hours of fun. You know, whatever. I don't know if the ad even covers that. What do I need to buy it? Available at Walgreens.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep, that's right.

[Donald Miller]

It's all there.

[Kyle Reed]

And in the ad, they gave a plan. Here's how you do. Here's the steps you take to be successful.

[Donald Miller]

Can I just tell you how everybody listening to this, including perhaps us, Kyle, would have approached this marketing effort? We can teach about botany, and we can teach. Kids will love it. Your aunt will love it. Your grandmother. You don't need to explain that. People are going to infer. I literally looked at the chia pet and went, my daughter would love that. Do they have to explain that to me? Then don't. Don't use the words explaining what people already understand. Use the words explaining what they don't understand. What is that? It's pottery that grows. Right. It's lots of fun. You can get it at Walgreens. It's a great.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, that's good.

[Donald Miller]

Let me tell you what will sell a lot this Christmas season for almost everybody listening. Who has the right product. It's a great stocking stuffer.

[Kyle Reed]

That's right.

[Donald Miller]

Kids will love it.

[Kyle Reed]

Kids will love it.

[Donald Miller]

That's so your grandmother's gonna. You know, those. Kids will love it. It's a great stocking stuffer. As soon as you say it's a great stocking stuffer, I'm like, okay.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep, 100%.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. I don't want to talk about what a great stocking stuffer. If you're saying, it's a great stocking stuffer. It's a great stocking stuffer.

[Kyle Reed]

That's so good. It's. It's not about explaining why you'll love it. Is that what you're saying?

[Donald Miller]

Well, I don't. You know, that should be pretty darn obvious.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And if you can say why you'll love it in, you know, a very short period of time, I think that's okay.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay.

[Donald Miller]

But I think that really what you want to say is, like, what's in this for me? What I got to do is fill stockings. That's what I've got to do. What I've got to do is be a good dad. What I've got to do is have something fun to do. With my daughter, what I've got to do. And this is, this is actually saying all of it. It's inferred in the. In the marketing campaign. But the bigger thing is again, kind of like head on, sort of annoyingly repetitive. You know, it's standing out and that was very, very smarter than me.

[Kyle Reed]

Good. All right, so I got one more for you. Do you remember the George Foreman grill?

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

So here's the George Foreman 30 second.

[Donald Miller]

Commercial that I found from Play the whole frickin thing. God rest his soul. What a great man.

[Kyle Reed]

This is my George Foreman family sized grill. That is it. It's my George Foreman griddle that cooks pancakes. It's my George Foreman baking oven. And it's making.

[Donald Miller]

No, no, no.

[Kyle Reed]

It's actually my omelet maker that makes the. No, it isn't.

[Donald Miller]

It's a grill griddle.

[Kyle Reed]

I'm the grill.

[Donald Miller]

Calm down, guys.

[Kyle Reed]

You.

[Donald Miller]

All right?

[Kyle Reed]

It's my G5 with five removable cooking plates.

[Donald Miller]

So it makes all of your favorite.

[Kyle Reed]

Foods and it makes.

[Donald Miller]

Knocks off the fat. The George Foreman G5. It's the next grilleration. All right. A lot there. The next grillerization.

[Kyle Reed]

Amazing.

[Donald Miller]

The controlling idea from the very beginning, it knocks out the fat. Yeah, that's the one. Well, it was also the main controlling idea early on in the infomercials. The whole idea is you could make a piece of meat and the fat would drain off.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Which is such a. Okay, so why is that? Why?

[Donald Miller]

Well, back in the day. Back in the day, this was during the day when we all thought we were supposed to be eating grains.

[Kyle Reed]

Interesting.

[Donald Miller]

And we weren't supposed to be eating fat. And there's still some truth to that. If you eat grains and fat, it's not. It's not very great for you. If you just eat fat, it's great for you. You know, all that kind of stuff. Ketosis. I'm not a doctor. But it would knock out the fat in such a way that you could take a piece of steak and eat it or a piece of chicken and you wouldn't have the fat that they thought was harmful.

[Kyle Reed]

See, I always thought they were selling convenience.

[Donald Miller]

Well, that's because you were a bachelor.

[Kyle Reed]

Did you have a George Foreman?

[Donald Miller]

I remember I've used a George Foreman, so I'm guessing we had one. I think maybe we had one in my home when I was a kid.

[Kyle Reed]

I. I remember as a kid, maybe teenager wanting one. Why?

[Donald Miller]

Wow. Because you saw it on infomercial.

[Kyle Reed]

Probably.

[Donald Miller]

George Foreman was awesome.

[Kyle Reed]

But I remember it was terrible. It. The Food you cooked on that was. It was not.

[Donald Miller]

Have you heard that comedian who does like the bit on the George Foreman grill? He's, you know, he's pretending to be George Foreman. He's in a meeting. They're like, should we have an off switch? No, no, no. Just drain the fat. Should we be able to put some sort of safety thing on it so the thing doesn't close your. No, no, no, no. Just drain the fat. Like, he goes through the whole thing on.

[Kyle Reed]

The only thing I think of is the Michael Scott in the office where he burns his foot on his. George Foreman because he wanted to have bacon when he woke up. That's the only one I can think of. But the food was not good on it. But. But that's interesting that I.

[Donald Miller]

It's a glorified panini maker, really. These have been in Italy since the invention of electricity.

[Kyle Reed]

So the annoying side of this marketing we've been kind of talking about is, okay, this time they introduced a celebrity and put a celebrity's name on marketing.

[Donald Miller]

Because George Foreman is the king of invention of food product. Right.

[Kyle Reed]

How much money did they make? Did you look that up?

[Donald Miller]

I did look that up. You ready?

[Kyle Reed]

Yep.

[Donald Miller]

The George Foreman Grill has sold over X units.

[Kyle Reed]

Guess I hate when you do this. How many units ever?

[Donald Miller]

Ever? Now there's 330 million people in America. So there's a number to start with.

[Kyle Reed]

23 million.

[Donald Miller]

120 million units. 120 million units globally, and they're probably.

[Kyle Reed]

Like what, like 59.

[Donald Miller]

One of the best selling kitchen appliances of all time. Sales skyrocketed from $5 million, which is pretty good, in 1996, to. To $400 million six years later. And that's all from its peak year. In its peak year, they sold 14 million grills. Today, the grill remains popular, consistently outperforming competitors. Think about it. It launched a whole industry of like fat trimming grills, I guess. Now, George Foreman, poor George, only got 40% of profits, making $8 million per month more than any fight.

[Kyle Reed]

That's unreal.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, 8 million. I doubt he made much more than 8 million for any of his fights because he was fighting back in the day when, you know, there weren't these 40 million dollar paydays. In 1999, Salton bought out the rights to use its name. They paid 1 37.5 million. Imagine George Foreman's payday on that, including cash and stock. Overall, Foreman made much more than 200 million from the grill and far exceeding, of course, his boxing career. Here's Some interesting tidbits about the company. I didn't know this origins of the grill. The grill was originally pitched as the Fajita Express. Its slanted design for fat drainage was key to its eventual success.

[Kyle Reed]

That really was big.

[Donald Miller]

That was big. But if you think about it, selling it on how to make fajitas really quick, you're gonna sell 37 units, drain the fat out of your meat. You get all the protein without the fat. Somebody found the right messaging angle on it. It's the same freaking thing.

[Kyle Reed]

That's Right now. This is really important, which is what.

[Donald Miller]

You talked about earlier, but also just think about. For our listening audience, it's the same product. The difference between 5 million and 120 million or whatever the numbers were earlier was talking about it differently. That's the whole point of this podcast. If you just start talking about things differently and experimenting, your business could explode. It's the whole fricking point of this podcast. So, you know, the Fajita Express versus George Foreman Grill, focusing on knock out the fat. Knock out the fat is worth all that money. And George Foreman was absolutely worth 40. But, by the way, is a great take.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

40% of the profit is a great take because he's not running the company. He's not hiring and firing people. He. He's not negotiating health expenses. He's not buying buildings. He's not doing vendor supply chains out of Korea or Vietnam or China or wherever they're making these freaking things. He's not having to do any of that. And he's getting 40% of the profit. Fantastic, George. Way to negotiate, man.

[Kyle Reed]

That is a. I heard knock out the fat. I skipped over it. You were so right.

[Donald Miller]

Well, but it's. Because what we listened to is a commercial where it's like the ninth iteration of it. Knock out the Fat was mentioned in there, but it was actually at the beginning of the campaign. It was all the campaign was about.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. That was the newer version of that commercial. But you're right, that's. And once you. It's kind of what we've been talking about. Once you nail that tagline or that message. Just watching sales and things explode later.

[Donald Miller]

Later, George would say, it's so good, I put my name on it. Which is interesting. That was also an interesting sort of sub tagline because you have a celebrity who's vouching for a product. Yeah. Giving it authority. The visual demonstrations, the infomercials that showcase the fat dripping off food into trays, you know, emphasizing the health benefits, the convenience of it. That really appealed. And then you can't beat just the authenticity of George Foreman. He's just such a likable, likable guy. I mean, you know, perfect storm there in that product, but still selling.

[Kyle Reed]

I love, though, how they figured out that one thing they could solve that one problem that people were.

[Donald Miller]

Drain the fat.

[Kyle Reed]

It works.

[Donald Miller]

A lot of stuff to copy there. If you're a brand. What would you copy if you were a brand? You don't sell anything like a grill. Talk to me about.

[Kyle Reed]

It's the same but different. It's the finding that one thing that goes, we're the same as this, but different this way. There's the one.

[Donald Miller]

We're like a waffle maker. So what's the same but different?

[Kyle Reed]

Well, we are. We are like a wall, but it drains the fat. That. That to me, was different.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, we're. We're. We're a way to cook stuff, but without the fat.

[Kyle Reed]

Drains the fat.

[Donald Miller]

And so the. The enemy there is fat. The benefit. Yeah. You gotta. You gotta be able to say, oh, you know, here's. Here's something you could apply. What is it that your product gets rid of that's harmful to your customer? Okay, what is it. What is it your product gets rid of that you're harmful to a customer?

[Kyle Reed]

Well, you then. You've talked about this. You then make that the villain.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Because I think a lot of brands, look, they try to solve their own problem.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

And make that the villain. But really what you're trying to do is make the problem the thing that's harmful to their customer. That's the villain. That's what you attack.

[Donald Miller]

You know, I went down to the basement the other day. I had to. I had to punch a nail into the inside of a bookshelf. The inside of a bookshelf. Punched a little nail in. So I could hang the bottom part of a movie screen for a family movie night. And I just happened to have. I don't even know where I got it. I happen to have a little short hammer. It's like literally like 4 inches. And I'm like, oh, perfect. So I get in there. I could actually take that hammer and sell a truckload of them and just call it the Hammer for small spaces.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

It's like you got a hammer, but do you have a hammer for small spaces? And then just show somebody losing their mind because they're under a kitchen sink trying to do something with a giant hammer and they're busting pipes and, you know, and hitting themselves in the forehead.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

That's the sort of thing that you want to think about. What's the thing that you're saving somebody from that you may have never thought of? You've got to find the thing that your customer is weary of, tired of trying to avoid, and talk about how your product is solving that problem for them and focus on that.

[Kyle Reed]

That's good. And we there's so many examples we could go from. And we want to hear from you as you're listening to this. What are those funny camp commercials you remember or those annoying ones that you can't get out of your head? There's a ton. Leave us a comment on YouTube or on this podcast. But Don.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah? What's the annoying messaging that you think is effective?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, but it's because they're clear. And I think that's the thing I'm walking away with, is having that clarity of what you are solving, that problem you're solving. And sometimes it needs to be a little annoying to get the attention of people.

[Donald Miller]

Doesn't hurt, apparently.

[Bobby Richards]

Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you like the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messaging? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.