Camp + King rolled out an ad for YouTube featuring clips from the “Mr. Plow” episode of The Simpsons, and showing how YouTube is celebrating small businesses. YouTube and Camp + King, in collaboration with Gracie Films and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, used original footage from The Simpsons to create the Mr. Plow video ad. The one-minute spot shows how YouTube’s video ads for small businesses help out Homer Simpson in his new business venture, just in time for the busy snow season.
“YouTube, and Google, have long been committed to supporting small business and helping them, and their communities, get discovered,” said Jamie King, one of the founders of Camp + King. “We thought it would be fun to tap a small business [snow plowing] from The Simpsons to celebrate this commitment.”
Fellow Camp + King founder Roger Camp noted, “With the winter holidays upon us and it being an El Niño year, we thought Mr. Plow would be the perfect mechanism for this effort. This video ad is an homage to Homer’s plow business, with the subtle jokes we’ve come to love from The Simpsons.”
In the original episode, Homer opens a snowplow business, but his attempts at using traditional forms of advertising to drum up business prove unsuccessful. Then, daughter Lisa suggests that he buy time on late-night, local television. In Camp + King’s YouTube ad based on the “Mr Plow” episode, Lisa shows Homer how to advertise his business on YouTube with a few simple clicks. Soon his Mr. Plow jingle is Internet gold.