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The Snuggie: Just Another Goofy Infomercial, Right?
I caught an infomercial late last December, while watching late night TV with my girlfriend, which featured a number of people struggling and failing to properly use a blanket. Blanket after blanket keeps sliding off of the bewildered, supposedly cold people while they try to watch TV or answer the phone, and the narrator explains that the Snuggie would prevent all of these mishaps with its built-in sleeves.
We had a good laugh, and even logged onto the Snuggie website to watch the unintentionally hilarious video again. Really? These people can't unlock the secret of how to place a blanket atop their knees? That's the ad's angle? Hilarious.
The joke was on us. All of us. Evidently, the Snuggie has sold 4 million sleeve-blankets. In a single month. In the middle of a recession. I am astounded.
Snuggie Marketing Madness
Somehow, the ad campaign has managed to convince millions of Americans to abandon the perfectly good blankets they already have for new "luxurious, heavy-fleece" blankets for $19.95 plus $8 shipping and handling. How did they do it? Either, a) their ad campaign convinced people they'd always want to dress like sitcom-loving monks, or b) they actually convinced people that blankets are too difficult to use.
I have an alternative for would-be Snuggie buyers everywhere: for half the price of a Snuggie, a mere $10 a session, I will act as a blanket consultant. I will personally instruct you on how to best facilitate the use of a blanket in order to keep warm. I would simply tell you here, but since it's become clear how lucrative knowing how to use a blanket can be, I think I will mount my own campaign to cut into the Snuggie market share.
What's really happened, though, is the product's goofy charm has captured the affection of American pop-culture: late night hosts make fun of it, video parodies of the infomercial go viral, and articles proclaim the success of a humble-but-harmless ad campaign. It's funny to have a Snuggie?you can laugh about it with your friends, and participate in the chorus of our consumer-crazed culture.
Snub the Snuggie
Seriously. Please don't buy a Snuggie. It's just another frivolous item that'll end up in your closet after the fad stops being cute and ironic. And let's not further encourage this sort of marketing practice; convincing people to buy more stuff they don't need due to dubious claims the stuff they already have doesn't work. It's why we need greener marketing. "Consume! Consume!" our culture shouts. And we've got to collectively start ignoring it, for reasons both environmental (do we really need to be shipping blankets across the country, when nearly all of us can be buying handmade or locally-made ones in our own towns?) and economic.
While $30 might not seem too steep for a customized blanket (and free book light too, if you order now!), it's the principle guiding its success that's egregious: the need to buy more. It's essentially what landed us in this recession, and we need to understand and negate it. When faced with the option, we need to buy nothing, not more.
Say no the Snuggie.
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