Molson Canadian's Do Over Day?

I don’t know about you, but I would kill to have a chance to be Phil Connors, stuck in Punxsutawney for a little while in the film Groundhog Day. Going back and doing a single day over and over again; learning a language, learning to play an instrument, and all without any time pressure. Just keep plodding away, all the while knowing that you’re not getting older, you’re going to be that little bit better at the piano, and tomorrow looks like a good day to practice some more.

That’s the first thing I thought when I heard about Do Over Day; followed shortly by “What’s the angle?”

Imagine re-enjoying your first kiss, the birth of your first child, or even your first marriage. Picture yourself re-experiencing the fabulous meals you’ve eaten, the exotic lands you’ve visited, the epic raves you cannot recall attending. Conversely, visualize yourself making amends for your life’s imperfect moments – the time you made a pass at your wife’s sister and got caught, or the night driving home from the pub when you accidentally ran over your neighbour’s shihtzu, or that scathing company-wide email you fired off in a huff one fateful day, back when your career was still on track. And think about all the do overs you would suggest to others.

Now, stop for a second and think about this. It’s a rather plastic site with a handful of embarrassing videos chosen by the unseen editors.

There may as well be a headline across the top of the page that says “THIS IS NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER’S ADVERTISING MEDIUM! WE ARE FRESH AND HIP AND NEW! LOOK! OUR MEDIA GUYS HAVE A BLOG, AND THEY’RE NOT AFRAID TO UPDATE IT TWICE PER QUARTER!”

The name in the footer of the pages here is that of Wills & Co. They are referred to as a “Media Buyer” in press releases put out by companies that are proud of campaigns they’ve paid the big bucks for. The gallery on their site is loaded with Virgin Mobile campaigns, and they also have a relationship on some level with Evergreen.ca.

Maybe it’s a campaign around recyclable cell phones from Virgin Mobile that contain seeds embedded in the biodegradable case? Use up your minutes, and plant the phone in the yard?

That or maybe it’s a re-take on Molson’s successful campaign with Joe; “Canada is the second largest landmass! The first nation of hockey! and the best part of North America My name is Joe!! And I am Canadian!” This time, however, maybe he’ll then continue on “I drink Canadian! Man, do I have regrets! Last night, I thought I took home Tina, but I woke up to Tony! That doesn’t make me gay! Does it?”

“Righting the Wrong. Reliving the Right.” says the graphic on the front page of the site, and I’m thinking that this might go political. Maybe this is a stealth approach for the right-leaning Conservative party of Canada to, at arm’s length, collect juicy secrets from the public and convince them to go out to the polls and right that wrong by voting Right.

It almost smells of an “Alternate Reality Game” (ARG) like those done for TV shows like Lost, games like Halo 2, etc. I suppose we’ll see if the main site turns into a rabbit hole on the 26th, but maybe that’s just the smell of marketing on it.

Is it just me that sees this as a blatant attempt to make something “go viral” and they’re trying just a little too hard? The links I’ve found posted at digg.com are going un-dugg, there’s little to no comment on the site out here, and the videos and stories don’t seem to be attracting much in the way of comments on the site itself.

This could be an interesting idea, a kind of day of atoning; a confessional. No matter how I look at it, I still see it as a transparent marketing effort. Lure people to a web site with a cool, fun sounding idea during the soft launch, and then on the launch day, WHAM! advertising consumers!

Anyone who answers questions like “Have you been caught or reprimanded for using drugs or alcohol at work?” on an effectively anonymous web site with no terms of service or privacy policy is leaving themselves open to anything that happens. If it is a straight up marketing site, they’ll be tracking your clicks through the site and should you send an ecard or sign up for a mailing list, they may be able to correlate your quiz answers with your name and contact info.

There’s no privacy policy listed, but the videos that are there are playing from Youtube, are all videos uploaded by the dooverdaycanada user. There seems to be minimal interaction that the average user can actually provide, so there’s no big privacy concern at this point.

I’m a bit disappointed in Wills & Co’s attempts at a blog though; the posts come fewer and further apart than mine do; once every couple of months, at best.

Please don’t let it be an advertising site for an Adam Sandler movie. I feel cold.