PuppyMonkeyBaby and the Case for Bad Publicity

“There’s no such thing as bad publicity” is an old adage, but does it ring true?

Enter PuppyMonkeyBaby.

If you watched the Super Bowl or follow marketing trade publications, you likely saw the ad. In case you did not; however, it’s on YouTube.

Disclaimer: This ad is weird. It may be one of the weirdest you’ve ever seen. It might even give you nightmares and/or the willies.

Viewers were split on the ad: some loved Mountain Dew’s spot, which featured a PuppyMonkeyBaby, others not so much. (Case in point: this news story declared the commercial was “freaking Super Bowl viewers out” and that Mountain Dew crossed the “line between cute and horrifying.”

You might be wondering: what is a puppymonkeybaby anyway? Well, unfortunately, it’s exactly what it sounds like: one-third puppy, one-third monkey, one-third baby and 100% weird.

In case you can’t bring yourself to watch the commercial (I don’t blame you) here’s the gist: The creature appears, basically from nowhere, in a living room where three late teens or early 20’s guys are hanging out (we can guess this is Mountain Dew’s target audience), carrying a bucket full of the new Mountain Dew Kickstart. It does a creepy, jittery dance while chanting its name “puppymonkeybaby” to the horror of the guys sitting on the couch.

It jumps up on the couch, passes out the drink and licks one of the men’s face three times, each lick punctuated by the creature announcing its different segments (“puppy”, “monkey” and “baby”, in case you forgot). The guys jump up and start dancing along with the puppymonkeybaby and dance out of the apartment while drinking Kickstart. Mountain Dew then explains that puppymonkeybaby, like its new drink, is three parts of different things put together to make another better thing (Supposedly. I like puppies, monkeys and babies on their own just fine, thank you). “Dew”, juice and caffeine, all mixed together to create the new, more delicious, Mountain Dew Kickstart.

But in spite of all of the negative attention garnered by the ad, it got attention. Even though the ad was posted on Feb. 3, it already has nearly 20 million views on YouTube. The hashtag #puppymonkeybaby was one of the highest trending items on Twitter for more than day after it aired. There are already articles suggesting it as an easy DIY Halloween costume.

So, this begs this question: was it a successful ad? Which step on the consumer decision making scale is Mountain Dew addressing here? Do you think viewers are more or less likely to purchase Kickstart now than they were before?