eBay’s Dumbest Viral Marketing Campaigns Ever
EBay Inc.’s marketing geniuses dreamed up some blobby little cartoon characters to promote the site and the supposed endorphin rush you get when you win an eBay auction — “win-dorphin,” get it?
The original press release of July 2007 said, “We’ve all experienced that feeling you can only get on eBay — you know, the excited rush you get when you win that item you really wanted at a great price? … Well, we’ve had a scientific breakthrough! According to our official scientists — after a lot of arduous, painstaking research — it can be linked to a phenomenon called ‘Windorphins.’”
EBay set up a Web site where you could create your own Windorphins and spent millions on billboards, magazine ads and TV spots promoting them.
One billboard ad proclaimed, “Windorphins are like a ticker tape parade for your soul.”
A more accurate description came from the blogger who called them “happy, animated hemorrhoids.”
EBay quietly dropped the campaign a few months later in favor of the slogan “Shop victoriously.”
Ugh. As for the Windorphins: Now they’re just plain orphans.
Here’s a stupid Windorphines Walrus Test video:
