Experian: Using Parody and Humor to Promote Credit Education

I’m a big fan of Pauly Shore.

From the era of MTV to Encino Man, Son in Law, In the Army Now to Jury Duty and the mega-flop Bio-Dome, Pauly Shore often appeared next to other up and coming Hollywood comedians.

The 40-something comedian’s career abruptly stalled in the mid 90’s.

The reason?

The Hollywood studios didn’t want to make family comedies anymore, they wanted action-packed, superhero-driven mega-movies that instead of producing safe revenues in the $25 to $40 million range, they’d be aiming for the $100+ million figures. Soon though, people would be asking for real comedy, not plastic, pre-processed “funny lines” tossed in-between punches and CGI.

Pauly Shore has a distinct style and he’s active on twitter as well. I love the guy, he kept it going despite the career downfall and since the mid 2000’s he’s been on the rebound with several funny and serious roles on the TV and the movies.

Pauly’s recent cameo appearance in Experian’s educational series about credit, titled “The Funny Truth about Credit” made me take a good look into what Experianone of the three credit bureaus – is trying to achieve.

In this series, Experian is using famous actors in short movies, providing a humorous, entertaining and educational approach to what constitutes good credit practices. The idea is unique and the message is passed through quick, sharp dialogue that appeals both to the fans of the actors and those that want to learn more about credit and how it affects our daily lives.

With DomainGangthe only daily entertainment magazine catering to domainers – I strive to deliver humor, insight and a thought-provoking analysis of the domain industry.

When large corporations like Experian utilize humor as their promotional tool, it’s important to see this as a lesson that thinking outside the box is what is needed; regurgitating news and information is tiring and uninteresting.

Comments

  1. You had me til’ Pauly Shore

  2. Pauly is a genius 😀 You need to rent all his movies on VHS tape and watch them with some munch-ch-ch-ch-cheese and some vino.

  3. Great post, did not know where you were going when I read the headling on domaining.com. But great insight, I agree you need to find a way to stand out. Anyone can say I have a site and repeat what other people are doing.

  4. Ray 🙂 Creativity is part of human nature, we attempt to do things in our own distinct ways.

    From a marketing and promotional standpoint, I detest lack of substance for the sake of visuals. In other words, the Super Bowl commercials are rarely funny.

    What Experian is doing with this series has both substance, delivers a message and entertains while doing it. I liked it a lot.

  5. “they wanted action-packed, superhero-driven mega-movies”

    You mean like:
    Chris Farley in Beverly Hills Ninja (1997) 🙂

    “and watch them with some munch-ch-ch-ch-cheese and some vino.”

    You meant lots of vino, no?

  6. LOL Patrick, you had me rolling with this one 😀 Good old Chris, RIP.
    His “Black Sheep” was my favorite.

  7. Acro,

    I would agree with you about Pauly Shore but then we would both be wrong

  8. Shame, Shane 😀 I think Pauly is very talented; perhaps you didn’t follow him while he was at the height of his career?

  9. Just playing with you. I loved him as the Weasel.

  10. I watched it now and agree it ties in both nicely. Because when you can get a message across and entertain you get the complete package. People don’t see it as advertising or a commercial but instead entertainment.

    I liked Encino Man alot, In the Army was good too him and Andy Dick played well together IMO. And for all the people who busted on Pauly, he got insanely hot women.

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