Man vs. Wild
By Jeff Hilimire on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007Ok, I’m going to have a very hard time making this fit into interactive marketing. I’ll just start and see if I can manage to tie it back to the industry somehow but I have to talk about this show - here goes.
I went to dinner a few weeks ago with some friends and the bartender couldn’t help but interrupt our conversation to tell us about this TV show that he was obsessed with. I think my initial thought was, “That’s great, now could you please shut up?” You know how there are some bartenders that know when to leave you alone and know when to keep you company? Well this wasn’t one of those guys. And in this rare circumstance I’m glad he wasn’t.
If you haven’t seen Man vs. Wild on The Discovery Channel, then you’re just not as cool or hip as I thought you were. The show is described on the website as:
“In each episode of Man vs. Wild, adventurer Bear Grylls strands himself in popular wilderness destinations where tourists often find themselves lost or in danger. Once there he finds his way back to civilization, demonstrating local survival techniques along the way.”
That’s one way to say it. I tell it a little differently though:
“Bear Grylls gets dropped into places that are known to take the lives of hundreds of lost hikers/travelers every year with just a knife, water bottle and a camera crew, and he’s expected to find civilization before he dies. In the process, the dude eats anything he can get his hands on, including maggots, frogs, ticks, oh and a dead sheep’s eyeball 
, drinks things that you don’t even want to know about but I’ll tell you anyway (yes, including the juice from fresh elephant dung and at one point his own urine… I am not making this up) and sleeps in places you can’t even imagine. It usually takes him three days of this stuff to find his way out.”
If you don’t believe me, check out some of these Youtube videos:
He does all of these things not because he’s a big Fear Factor fan, but because he’s trying to show the audience how to survive in the most desperate situations. Plus it makes great TV.
Caution, lame attempt to tie this to interactive marketing coming in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
When I watch this show I can’t help but see a corollary between the desperate things that Bear does to survive and the way marketers today are desperately trying to figure out ways to make their ads relevant. And the end results are often just as disgusting. For instance… ok, I can’t even keep this up. Just watch the show and you’ll thank me for it.
Yes, my husband is obsessed. I just didn’t realize that it would begin affecting his work….
I have watched several episodes and think it is pretty good. I wonder if they have a blog (I haven’t checked)…. I would like to hear from the camera person/crew. I wonder how they handle tense situations (e.g., the camera person/crew obviously has food/water/shelter); how do they resist helping out Bear?). Also, it would be a bit more realistic if there was no film crew (i.e., only Bear + a digital camcorder).
Finally, just my $0.02 here, but you do not *have* to find a direct correlation between your postings and company.
The Hilimire family blog is one of my favorite places to read on the Internet.
Does the little man type yet?
Wow - just watched the “Urine” clip. A great line from that one:
“…in this heat…my sweat can’t cool me down and all I’ve got to drink is my own urine.”
A sure sign that things aren’t going well…
I’m thinking that the fact that you sent dozens of people to YouTube to learn that Urine is 95% water ties perfectly with the industry… no? Well it’s pretty funny.
I am also a fan of this show - it’s highly addictive. I mean … check out the YouTube clips! Humans are amazing - if we really put ours mind to it anything is possible. Like surviving on the juice of elephant dung - or building an interactive marketing program.
There was a marathon one day, Bear Grylls is my idol, he is SOOOO BRUTAL and EXTREME, its so hilarious what he does and how he handles every situation because he is the only person I know who would think and plan like he does when lost or trapped or in a tight situation. Sometimes his logic and procedures are accurate, but other times, you question who else would be willing to do what he does. He finds a snake bits its head off and eats the rest, and talks about what kind of snakes are OK to eat while the snake is still squirming in his mouth, then he finds a stick and kills a rabbit and skins it with his bare hands. It amazes me that he can complete these tasks with so little materials in such little time.
Here to help you out in making this tie into Interactive Marketing.
You heard about a product/service or in this case entertainment. You told lots of via the blog. I loved your description, it was just enough to satisfy me so that I would not have to watch the show, but if I wanted a little more, you were able to include the YouTube videos. Now, I could pass those videos on to my husband and other warped men I know who would be very interested in the show and start watching.
By adding the videos to the message, not only were you able to provide an accurate example of what you were enthusiastic about, but the message did not get blocked by someone like me who would not be able to explain it to my friends with the same enthusiasm since I can just pass the video along.
It’s a shame, but Man VS. Wild got caught cheating:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6911748.stm