This is all about the power of a rumour

Saatchi & Saatchi Tokyo created this novel campaign for Reebok Taikan by starting a rumour that a traditional exercise TV program, which every Japanese grew up with and was forced to endure in schools and at work, was planning to launch a new version. This became a huge deal in Japan because they haven’t changed the program since the war. Naturally, it got on the news in every major newspaper and network. They went into stage two by starting another rumor that someone got a hold of the video and was going to air it on YouTube on April 1st.

View the site

Within a week, the video had well over 200,000 viewings and was featured on YouTube’s main page. Patrick Plutschow, Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Tokyo said, “The reason why it got so many views is because what feels like an ordinary government issued exercise program with the same seated girl in the middle catering to the elderly viewers becomes something acrobatic that no normal person can do (especially the elderly). Even the link to the Reebok website tripled in traffic after the video launch.”

“And this is all because of a simple rumour. That’s the idea; a rumour. If rumours could cause the stock market to crash as it did in 1929, it could surely get the word out about a high-tech performance wear that really works,” said Plutschow.