Blendtec – Will it Blend?

Seemingly overnight, the Blendtec blender project Will It Blend became a viral internet sensation, and after a quick glance at their website www.willitblend.com, it’s easy to see why.

What is Will it Blend?

The Will It Blend project combines the three things internet users value most from entertainment: expensive electronics, high-powered machinery, and deadpan sarcasm.

Willitblend.com is first and foremost an advertising campaign for Blendtec commercial and home blenders, utilizing video presentations to showcase the strength and effectiveness of their appliances.  However, the company does so in a very entertaining way- by asking the question, “Will It Blend”?

Blendtec embraces the challenge that most companies run from.  They set out to prove categorically that Blendtec blenders are as good as all the hype and that they do meet the power and performance standards their advertising espouses.  To prove this, however, Blendtec decides to test their blenders on some rather intriguing products.

Tom Dickson, the host of Will It Blend, shoots simple one minute, 30 second promotional videos where he tests if a new product (often expensive and electrical) can be chopped, grated, sliced, or powdered by a Blendtec blender.  The site is split into two sections: “Try This At Home” and “Don’t Try This At Home”.  The “Try This At Home” section features Tom blending normal cooking ingredients like avocados, chicken soup, healthy greens, and even some unexpected elements like granular sugar.  While the results are positive and impressive, the viral and attention-catching aspect of the Will It Blend project occurs in the “Don’t Try This At Home” section.  In these videos, Tom Dickson tackles some heavy-duty opposition to the Blendtec blades, including an iPad, tire repair kit, and even an air soft gun — all of which are reduced to a fine powder (or gooey mess) at the end of the clip.

The clips embrace a corny 1950’s vibe, with Tom Dickson delivering flawlessly deadpan lines evocative of Leave It to Beaver scripts.  The segments have rotating intro themes, with music remarkably like The Price Is Right or an early-American Public Service Announcement, complimenting images of annihilated wool socks and decimated iPods (Will It Blend seems to take immense joy in destroying Apple Products…).  And of course, each clip opens with Tom looking scientific in his lab coat and glasses (and yet completely cherub-like: look at those dimples!), asking us “Will It Blend?  That is the question.”

Well, it appears the answer is clearly yes.  Yes, Blendtec, I’m quite sure it will blend.  If your blenders can handle a tape measure, pickled pigs feet, and a rake handle (yes, you heard me correctly- a rake handle), I’m pretty sure I don’t need you to prove anything else.

For as long as there are geeky teenage boys on the internet looking for bad ideas, Will It Blend will be there to help them out, obliterating expensive appliances and wreaking mayhem for mothers everywhere.  On the bright side, whether you need sawdust or guacamole, a Blendtec blender should most certainly do the trick.