Ian Laperriere is a player on the Philadelphia Flyer’s fourth line.  He’s a “mucker and grinder” in nhlspeak (a team player that gives up his body/health on every shift.).  He’s 36, (old for hockey), he’s a French Canadian (see the goalie character from Slapshot), and he’s a hell of a good sport!  He was selected to be spokesperson in a promo for the  Flyers Soles for Souls campaign sponsored by Kiwi shoe polish.  That they considered him in the first place to be the spokesperson for ANYTHING is just brilliant marketing, (again French Canadian, THICK accent).  This campaign would be a mouthful for anyone.

Say “Flyers Soles for Souls sponsored by Kiwi Shoe Polish” out loud.

Now do it with a French Canadian accent. Tough huh!?!?  But wait… it gets harder.

The day before Ian Laperriere had to shoot this commercial?  He had SEVEN TEETH knocked out!  (Occupational hazard when you are a “mucker and grinder!”)  Of course he still showed for the shoot because he is as tough as nails.  That they still shot it, that he allowed the footage to be used, and that it is currently the promo running on TV and Flyers.com is half the brilliance.  The other half is that they did the same with the bloopers! (below.)

Big Ups to the Flyers, Kiwi, Comcast, Laperriere, and to the millions of web folks that made the web video viral.  This is no-fear web marketing. When things go wrong, or get bungled, that is your best chance at web gold sometimes.  The idea of “endorsement” in this day and age is a joke.  Every celebrity that HAS a cause…plugs on their own Facebook, Twitter and Blog.  So, to think Ian is really a big fan of KIWI is a notion that died in the 1950’s.  The client is paying to have product “A” next to Celebrity Endorser “B” and get it in front of many consumer eyeballs as possible.  As this video gets sent and resent around the internet, they are getting a lot more eyeballs then they would have if this promo starred Mike Richards and all went smoothly…