How A Comedian Tricks Small Business Owners Into Outrageous Marketing Ideas On 'Nathan For You'
Nathan Fielder is a 31-year-old comedian from Canada whose Comedy Central show "Nathan For You" offers outlandish advice to struggling small business owners.
In the season 2 finale, we meet Mark Rappaport, owner of Marky Sparky Toys.
In a voiceover, Nathan explains: "Of all the products Mark has invented..."
One stands out as the absolute worst. The Doink It is a strange ball that doesn't do much and unfortunately for Mark, it hasn't been the biggest seller, either.
"It's all fun and games, until nobody buys your toys," says Mark.
But as far as I'm concerned," explains Nathan, "The quality of the toy shouldn't matter when you're selling to kids.
So I paid Mark a visit with a way to get those Doink Its sold.
When you're a kid, what's the one thing you want more than anything?" Nathan asks Mark, answering his own question with, "To not be seen as a baby.
"It's very easy to market to kids because their brains are so small," Nathan narrates.
So rather than selling a ball, Mark should be selling an identity for children.
That identity? That owning a Doink It is the only way to prove you're not a baby.
While Mark is reluctant to the idea, Nathan assures him, "This is Marketing 101."
Mark tells Nathan there is only one thing that will win him over: "Cash, money."
I needed to show that this could be profitable, so later that week I arranged a focus group to see if my marketing approach would work with actual children.
Initially, the kids don't want the toy and think it's "dumb."
Nathan then pretends to get a call from the president. "He just told me that owning this toy is now the only proof that you're not a baby," Nathan tells the kids. "I have one so that's good, are you guys babies? You don't have the toy, so you must be a baby..."
Immediately, the children reach for the Doink Its.
When Nathan asks the kids what they think of people who don't have the toy, they call them "sad," "weird," and "they're babies."
The strategy worked even better than I hoped, so I rebranded the toy's packaging...
... And brought it to Mark to see what he thought...
It's horrible," says Mark. "If this is the best you got, you're awful. You are not good at what you do.
But I was convinced I could win Mark over if I could show him results. So I wrote and shot a professional TV commercial for the Doink It that was guaranteed to get kids to buy it.
The man in the commercial states: "If you are between the ages of 3 and 8, please listen closely. Owning a Doink It is now the only proof that you are not a baby. If you don't own this toy, people will think you wear diapers and cry all the time. Everybody will think you sleep in a crib and drink from a bottle. So tell your mom and dad to buy you a Doink It, because otherwise, you're just a baby."
The serious commercial ends with: "Oh, it can also be used as a toy ball."
The commercial was perfect, but when I tried to buy ad time on a local station, they said a commercial like this would never make it on TV. That meant I needed a new approach...
I convinced a local toy store to carry the Doink It by providing them with a Santa, free of charge, for the approaching holiday season.
But what they didn't know is that Santa was my old pal, James Bailey.
...Who I could trust to make sure every kid was asking for a Doink It for Christmas.
When one little girl tells Santa "I really want an Ever After doll," he responds: "That tells me you must be a baby. We don't want people to think you're a baby and the only way we can prove that is if you have a Doink It toy."
The kids immediately fall for it, telling their parents, "I need this."
Despite a couple uptight parents, the Doink It was the top-selling toy of the day.
But when I went back to Mark with the good news, he still didn't get it." Mark tells Nathan: "That was horrible advice, awful graphics, terrible design, and unprofessional.
In life, not everyone will see your vision," explains Nathan. "But it's important to always take the high road. Sometimes, the best way to brighten spirits is with a gift.
"But the biggest difference between me and Mark is that when I play with toys, I win," says Nathan. When Mark presses the toy replica of himself, it says, "Hi, I'm Marky, I'm an idiot businessman and the laughing stock of my industry," among some other things we can't print here.
More stunts from "Nathan For You" ...
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