I am having some fun looking over the visitor stats for this blog, finding out how people are ending up here, what the most popular pages/posts are, etc.
It’s incredible, but true! The most visited page on this blog is the post about the Rozerem ad: Rozerem Ads Dis Lincoln, Show Beaver. It could be the sexual symbolism of the beaver and/or the deep sea diver (see comments below) or it could be something else.
Many people, for example, are finding that particular page through search engines and they aren’t looking for sex — they appear to be looking specifically for information about the Rozerem ad.
If you search Google for any of the following terms (listed in rank order of page views that resulted from the search referral), the “Dis Lincoln, Show Beaver” page is listed as number 1 or number 2 in the natural search results:
- rozerem commercial
- rozerem ad
- rozerem beaver
- rozerem web
- lincoln beaver
If you use “rozerem” or “rozerem web” in a Google search, you will a link to the official Rozerem Web site within the first or second entry on the page. So the search engine optimizers did a good job as far as that goes.
The search terms listed above, however, are not leading people to the Rozerem Web site. Most of the time the Rozerem Web site is NOT even on the first page of results! That’s a shame, because the ad is obviously creating a lot of “buzz” and several commenters to this blog suggested that because of this buzz the ad “did its job.”
“I believe the ad is doing exactly what it was set out to do. Create awareness and have people remember. You guys sure are talking a lot about it. I say job accomplished.” — Anonymous commenter.
I imagine many ordinary citizens — as opposed to bloggers like me — were confused about the ad or were interested in what the ad meant and may have searched for information about the ad itself or about Lincoln and the beaver. Unfortunately, that search activity only got them as far as me and my “snarky” critical post!
If the Rozerem advertisers’ goal was to create buzz, they should have thought about how to close the loop and make sure that when consumers searched for more information about the ad (rather than the drug), they would be more likely to find the Rozerem Web site, not my blog! That would have completed the “buzz circle” and helped drive traffic to the Rozerem site.
That’s my advice for today. Now, back to the beaver.
What Does the Beaver Mean?
A few people agreed with me that the beaver had a sexual connotation:I don’t like the talking beaver either, but its use seems obvious to me (as a male) — the guy dreams about “beaver,” aka sex. It’s exactly the politically incorrect interpretation John alludes to. And yeah, it’s pretty hokey when you think about it. Too clever by half. What’s next, a train?
Speaking of beaver as sexual symbolism, have a look at this:
Other people eschewed the sexual interpretation in favor of a good old Puritan work ethic spin:
The only reason I can see for the Beaver is that if you’re “busy as a beaver” you may be sleep deprived and/or have insomnia. I know that when I’m working my tail off (no pun intended), my brain is constantly working and I have trouble sleeping. Regardless, after looking at the website….I am unimpressed. I am not sure whether or not it is informative, because it could not keep my attention long enough for me find out.
Of course, we may all be analyzing this too much and finding deep meaning where there is none according to the following comment:
‘I dreamt I was jumping rope with Abe Lincoln and a beaver’ – no deeper meaning than a highly compelling evocation of how utterly ridiculous most of our dreams are.
One wonders what future Rozerem ads might be like.
I would hazard a guess that a few months after the Abe/beaver/diver commercials and ads are in the public’s awareness, the commercials will start making more “sense.”
