Before you hurl that helmet

A fake roach, Gary Coleman, and Orkin on your TV

By Jamie Allen
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- We pause from this network promo starring Gary Coleman as an ace detective to notice the roach crawling across our TV screen.

A roach! Sitting on the couch, we are disgusted and horrified. Did the pest-control guy forget to spray this month? Do we really live with bugs that have the gall to crawl on our TV?

We grab our remote control (what are they for, anyway?) and we throw it at the screen. Bam! The remote shatters; the roach is still there. There, at least, until an Orkin guy invades the Gary Coleman promo and takes care of the cocky little bug.

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We, the TV viewers of these United States, have been faked out by Orkin again.

Picking up where it left off a year ago, Orkin has launched its latest "fake out" ad campaign -- commercials created by ad company J. Walter Thompson. They appear to be selling something else until the fake roach shows up and Orkin takes care of business.

This is Orkin's second effort to fool us. Last year, timed with April Fool's Day, Orkin launched a similar commercial promoting a fictional fabric softener. The roach crawled into view, and America reacted. One panicked woman hurled a motorcycle helmet at the screen, damaging her TV. Another chucked a shoe. And Orkin? The Atlanta, Georgia-based pest exterminator returned all media phone calls.

"Last year we were so successful that we thought, 'Gosh, we have to try to repeat that,' " says Martha May, Orkin's director of public relations.

This year's two spots, which began airing on April 2, pretend to sell a perfume called "Pegasus" and the aforementioned Gary Coleman detective show, which doesn't really exist. Coleman, once the child star of NBC's "Diff'rent Strokes," was a good fit for the campaign, says May.

"He was available, he needed work, he was cheap," she says. "He had a great time with it, and we found out later that he actually is an Orkin customer."

While Orkin was caught by surprise by the passion of viewer response the first go- round (the motorcycle helmet woman demanded a new TV; Orkin declined), the company reacted quickly, initiating an "Orkin Got Me Sweepstakes." It invited fooled viewers to log on to the company's Web site and share their stories of shattered remotes and entomophobic screams.

Three-thousand people piped up, and one storyteller, drawn randomly, walked away with a new Philips TV.

Orkin's doing the same thing this year. The sweepstakes runs through the fall, as do the latest commercials.

And beware: new roach-on-our-TV-screen commercials might be on their way. "As long as it's successful, we'll keep it going," says May.

Fake roach creates real scare
April 6, 2000

"Orkin Got Me Sweepstakes"

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