From theslanket.comThe marketing hook for the suddenly-everywhere Snuggie is that its form-fitting coziness helps you keep down your home-heating bills. (O.K., that’s only one hook: the ads also claim that ordinary blankets are too cumbersome and may, tragically, entrap your hands.)
There are a host of other blankets-with-sleeves (a.k.a. “robes”) on the market, from the “original” Freedom Blanket to the socially conscious but awkwardly named Slanket. One upscale version, the Nuddle, even includes a pocket in front for your hands and another at the bottom for your feet (the Nuddle is so upscale that it doesn’t have sleeves, it has slats).
Niche-marketed blankets didn’t catch on last winter, when home heating costs skyrocketed with rising fuel prices.
So why now?
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The advertising for these and other odd-ball products picked up when mainstream ad revenue began to dry up so stations lowered rates allowing the “marginal” advertisers to roll in.
The Snuggie ad has to be one of the best ads ever… When they show the family cheering on the bleachers at a sporting event, I just can’t help but laugh thinking there is new type of cult sports following.
Viral marketing–an oddball ad and its subsequent spread on youtube–is the simple answer to this.
I would buy one so I too could look like a Jedi.
I think that the ridiculousness of the ad has turned it into an Internet meme, sort of like a Rick Astley effect.
Infomercials or “direct marketers” have agreements with TV networks to air their programming when spots remain unsold, so advertising rates have nothing to do with it. It is just a lack of demand from mainstream advertisers.
I love the advert on the Snuggie website suggesting “you can snuggle your baby in your arms [while wearing a Snuggie]“.
What kind of parent would leave their baby in the now poorly-heated household without a Snuggie?
Well, if Freakonomics posts about them, they have to be good, so now I want one!