I’d planned to write a post about my recent adventure as an unofficial Butt Ambassador at RAGBRAI – the biggest bike ride in the world. I was going to write about the process of creating branded content without being hired by the brand. But the wonderful Erin Schroeder ended up interviewing me and fellow comedian Joe Beadle for her Cornfed Comedy blog, so it’s all here, black and white, clear as crystal:
TWO COMEDIANS LEAD FIGHT FOR COMFORTABLE REAR ENDS AT RAGBRAI
As such, I’m just gonna share my thoughts about the intersection of politics and branding, something that crossed my mind as Joe and I were shooting this campaign. To be clear, I’m not a political satirist and I derive greater pleasure from writing and directing the occasional comedy campaign than commenting on political ones. But I wanted to evaluate the following branding efforts:
- Anti Monkey Butt, “Fight friction with Anti-Monkey Butt Powder and keep the chafing at bay!”
- The Trump Campaign, “Make America Great Again”
For the record, neither brand has hired me to do their bidding. Joe and I bought some AMB swag and some product and gave it away as an example of the kind of campaign we might do if the brand hired us. We happened across the Trump bus while filming RAGBRAI’ers in Hiawatha, IA. They gave us free water, with no strings attached.
On the face of it, both brands do a good job of messaging, as far as logos and slogans go. The people we met from the Trump campaign – ranging from volunteers to his Midwest Co-Chair Tana Goertz – were nice and affable and they essentially talked about…well, making America great again. The thing is, Anti Monkey Butt really does keep the chafing at bay, as evidenced by the video below:
Trump’s slogan, meanwhile, seems harder to live up to. Especially when you witness him in action on the campaign trail (a more appropriate campaign slogan would be: Ego, Insults & Impulse – it’s anti-establishment and it tells it like it is, two terms the campaign staff used to describe Trump). Also, Anti Monkey Butt is just plain funny. I’m not sure Donald Trump is so funny anymore (the circus is still ridiculous, but funny and ridiculous are different things). And he seems to irritate new people every day (in addition to irritating the old people again).
So my conclusion, after diligent research out in the field, is this:
- Anti Monkey Butt: Prevents chafing
- Donald Trump: May cause chafing
For further evidence of the former, visit my YouTube Channel. If you’re on the fence about the latter, please get off the fence because that only exacerbates the chafing. This silly season aside, the real lesson here is that we should ALL just try to always be nice human people, stay dry and – whenever possible – avoid friction.
