Fossil - Introducing... “Just Husbands.” (2016) 2:00 (USA)

Though I'm usually not a fan of repurposing a comedy skit to create an ad, using the "Instagram Husbands" to sell a Fossil watch with a "selfie button" really works quite well both as a follow-up to the original skit created by the mystery hour comedy crew, and as a hard sell for the products new feature. The Fossil watch is a hybrid smart watch which has a selfie-button on it. That's the trick though, just jamming your memetastic viral celebs in unrelated product ads usually fails, like having the "I love cats lady" promoting VW cars, but here the entire "branded content idea" is both comedic sketch and product demo. It doesn't hurt that their characters are quite funny, especially the neurotic husband who is now quite upset that his wife doesn't need him anymore. Mr "I'm just a husband" is very happy that he now knows his wife's middle name, and Trey now takes better care of himself and even gets to eat. What a great product that can change lives so dramatically, I know someone who might just get this watch for Christmas.

360i created the spot with Blend producing it and The Mystery Hour Jeff Houghton and crew starring in it. I'll suppose everyone wrote it, including the client.

Ad agency: 360i
Production: Blend