If you watched CNN this week, or read the USA Today, you saw the emergence of a pop culture phenomenon called the Snuggie. Marketed as a blanket with sleeves, it looks more like a baby’s layette created for adults. While my family laughed at the commercials with people unable to get their arms out of a regular blanket to answer the phone, people were buying them by the millions. According to USA Today’s Maria Puente (2009) Snuggie has sold over 4 million blankets and they’re showing up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Jay Leno, and Ellen. In fact, the item that Jay Leno referred to as the “lard ass quilt” (Puente, 2009) is gaining popularity among young and old alike.
Websites like snuggiesightings.com (2009) show people of all ages doing everything from ice skating to laying on the beach in their Snuggie. There are numerous photos of people doing everyday tasks in their Snuggies, including eating out, shopping, and of course drinking. In fact, you’d have to be drinking to buy one of these. I don’t care how cold it is in your house. Why can’t you use a blanket you already have? I know, I know…the price is hard to beat….$19.95 for two, plus they throw in a free book light. But as Jay Leno says, “Why can’t you just put your robe on backwards?” (GMA, 2009). I guess it’s too much of a bargain for some people to pass on.
Regardless, Allstar Marketing Group must be laughing all the way to the bank. The viral marketing buzz has pulled in lovers and haters of the product alike. Lovers of the product are buying it by the millions to keep warm during a time when poor economic conditions are forcing people to cut back on their heating and energy usage. Haters of the product are contributing to the pop culture success by purchasing the product to use in their blog postings and YouTube videos.
This past week alone showed hosts from Good Morning America and CNN wearing Snuggies as they discussed the unexpected success of the product. Sports Illustrated got an early jump on the bandwagon last October when they aired the Snuggie commercial on their Extra Mustard ‘Hot Clicks’ site (2008). Viewers weighed in with comments like “it looks like a KKK robe”, “anyone wearing this looks like they’d belong to a creepy cult”, and my favorite “I don’t own a Snuggie, but I do have something similar. It’s called a coat.”
References
Good Morning America (2009). The Snuggie: the blanket with sleeves. Retrieved, February 1, 2009, from http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/Story?id=6716994&page=2
Puente, M. (2009, January 27). Snuggie gets a warm embrace from pop culture. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-01-27-snuggie_N.htm?se=yahoorefer
Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard (2008). Readers weigh in on the Snuggie. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/extramustard/10/22/snuggie-email/index.html
Images
Good Morning America (2009). Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/Story?id=6716994&page=2
Websites like snuggiesightings.com (2009) show people of all ages doing everything from ice skating to laying on the beach in their Snuggie. There are numerous photos of people doing everyday tasks in their Snuggies, including eating out, shopping, and of course drinking. In fact, you’d have to be drinking to buy one of these. I don’t care how cold it is in your house. Why can’t you use a blanket you already have? I know, I know…the price is hard to beat….$19.95 for two, plus they throw in a free book light. But as Jay Leno says, “Why can’t you just put your robe on backwards?” (GMA, 2009). I guess it’s too much of a bargain for some people to pass on.
Regardless, Allstar Marketing Group must be laughing all the way to the bank. The viral marketing buzz has pulled in lovers and haters of the product alike. Lovers of the product are buying it by the millions to keep warm during a time when poor economic conditions are forcing people to cut back on their heating and energy usage. Haters of the product are contributing to the pop culture success by purchasing the product to use in their blog postings and YouTube videos.
This past week alone showed hosts from Good Morning America and CNN wearing Snuggies as they discussed the unexpected success of the product. Sports Illustrated got an early jump on the bandwagon last October when they aired the Snuggie commercial on their Extra Mustard ‘Hot Clicks’ site (2008). Viewers weighed in with comments like “it looks like a KKK robe”, “anyone wearing this looks like they’d belong to a creepy cult”, and my favorite “I don’t own a Snuggie, but I do have something similar. It’s called a coat.”
References
Good Morning America (2009). The Snuggie: the blanket with sleeves. Retrieved, February 1, 2009, from http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/Story?id=6716994&page=2
Puente, M. (2009, January 27). Snuggie gets a warm embrace from pop culture. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-01-27-snuggie_N.htm?se=yahoorefer
Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard (2008). Readers weigh in on the Snuggie. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/extramustard/10/22/snuggie-email/index.html
Images
Good Morning America (2009). Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/Story?id=6716994&page=2
I see the snuggie commercial a lot. They look very comfortable. With me I feel a little awkward having my arms out of the snuggie (I know I'm weird). I also had to have my arms inside the covers. But if I could get passed that I could take this thing to all of the football games I go to. It would it seems like it is very comfortable (in the football weather I don't care about looks).
ReplyDeleteGreat post again, as usual! I love the idea of the snuggie. It will make a good Valentine's Day gift. Thanks for the idea. The product marketing seems to have taken hold of the public pretty quickly. This product reminds me of similar ones, both in form and in popular appeal from our not so distant past, like the pancho-the required hippie outerwear of the 60's, the space blanket-that thin shiny mylar thing that the astronauts used, and most lately, the fleece blanket.
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