Takin' Care of Buseyness

Sometimes, the medium is the message, and other times the medium is the messed celeb. The latter is the strategy entrepreneurial phone company GotVMail took when it hired Gary Busey as its viral messenger for a series of 40 or so ads that hit the Web this week.

The “Gary Busey on Business” campaign features the star of The Buddy Holly Story, whose promising career was later usurped by a motorcycle crash, drug addiction, loads of erratic behavior (according to one gossip blog, he insists on paying for all store purchases in doubloons) and various Jesus and reality show redemptions. In the vids, it is Busey 2.0 who blathers about business and pretty much anything else he wants, including hybrids and homework, and ties them into the entrepreneurial message.

Ads were created in house by GotVMail, which offers Web-based phone systems with multiple lines, hold music, forwarding and other services to make small businesses sound like professional firms starting at $9.95 a month.

Busey was chosen for his fortuitous name and knack for providing unintentional humor. “Our mascot’s name is Gary,” said CEO Siamak Taghaddos, who also liked Busey’s lack of business acumen. “He doesn’t know anything about business. He has no idea what he’s talking about.”

In addition to visiting a homepage on YouTube, fans of the work can go to GaryBuseyonbusiness.com to learn about the service, view clips and download a widget that they can host on their blogs and whatnot. The campaign will also have a page presence at MySpace and other social networking sites.

Comments

[mpatrimonio]

I've seen those videos as well and they're priceless! Sooner or later everyone'll be latching onto crazy old celebrities. It wasn't just gotvmail, either. Priceline, Blizzard interactive etc. Humor goes a long way.

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