He Had Me At The F Word

I have moments while I'm folding laundry and Young and the Restless is on in the background where I feel, well, um, wait for it...completely satisfied.  In fact, I love it.  That's right, this isn't a post about how I feel inferior because of all my motherly, homely duties.  

Maybe it's because those motherly responsibilities sometimes make me a hot commodity.  A target market that needs to be wooed.  And I love to be wooed.  Even if it is by seven-foot tall puppets from the the man who made the Teletubbies a massive success.  

This week I was wooed by The Oogieloves.  

Actually, I was wooed by the creative, marketing genius behind a new movie with seven-foot tall puppets called Oogies.  
 As a mom blogger, I was invited to a round table discussion for the puppet movie.  The discussion happened to take place at one of the nicest hotels in the metro Detroit area, in the penthouse suite to be exact with fancy coffee, fruit and baked goods.  

"What I really want to know, is why Hollywood doesn't make more fucking G-rated movies," Kenn Viselman, that aforementioned marketing guru, said.  A couple of the mom bloggers blushed, a few pursed their lips and I marveled. 

Sure, the baked goods were nice, but this guy had me at the F word.

His mother was in the group and kept count of how many times he said the F word.  And I loved that too.

Here's the thing, Viselman and his people made a movie for kids. A movie that might seem a little nutty, possibly annoying, to adults.  But it's not for adults, except for the fact that the adults might just enjoy seeing their kids happy.

I like that.  I can get on board with that.

Instead of getting a big studio behind the movie, he's taking it directly to the moms.  He compared his strategy to how The Passion of the Christ was marketed using church leaders and pastors.  
"The only group more powerful than Jesus is moms," Viselman said.

I'm not necessarily power hungry, but I have to admit it felt good.  It felt good to be needed, to be wooed, to be compared to Jesus.  This guy is no dummy.

The next day, I took the little boys to the movie premiere. 

While I worried they would tear up the place, break something or get hurt, they had a blast.

It was a circus-type atmosphere, which fit my family well.

This is a job that my pal Steph and I could totally do---clowns.  We used to sit and watch the young people working at Chuck E. Cheese and know that we could sing the songs better and put more feeling into the performance.  But after seeing these clowns work the room, I think we could totally do that too.   

Those power hungry, target-market moms in attendance were a tad pushy when the Oogies made their red carpet appearance. Sadly, I wasn't able to get too close to the red carpet.

But my little boys did get up on the step and repeat.  (The only reason I know that term is is from the Real Housewives of New York.)  

So last night, after attending the big movie premiere, I went back to the never ending laundry pile.  I didn't mind.  I didn't mind because I matter in the big world of marketing, movies and all that.  I = we moms.  We have power.  We can make a difference.  We can cast a huge wand of influence.

This movie is very G-rated.  This movie is full of love and happy interactive fun.  This movie is for kids.  How many movies like that are in the theaters?

We have the power to make that happen.
Visit the Oogieloves web site (click here) and spread the word.  The more moms that think it's a good idea means the more theaters where this movie gets played.

Check back here very soon to read my actual review of the movie. (Someone described it as 'Teletubbies meets the Wizard of Oz meets Rocky Horror Picture Show.' So you know it's going to be interesting.)

For now, I'm back to folding my laundry and I feel good. I feel like anything is f@&*ing possible.  Thank you Oogieloves.  Thank you Kenn Viselman.

Here's a WSJ.com clip about the movie and the unique marketing strategy.