Priceless is how Kent Pfrimmer describes the publicity he has received since surveillance video of a burglar trying, and failing, to break into his Redding store went viral last month.
Now the video of the bumbling, stumbling thief has been turned into a TV commercial for Pfrimmer’s business, Kent’s Meats and Groceries, and the 18-second clip is back in the national news.
The commercial was featured on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. Later in the day, Pfrimmer was interviewed by CNN about the spot, which is a plug for Kent’s New York-style pastrami.
The commercial, played to music similar to the “Benny Hill theme,” shows the bulky burglar throwing the rock at the window. The sound of glass shattering can be heard before a giant pastrami sandwich crashes on camera, followed by the voice-over: “So good, some people will do just about anything to get more”
Rocky Slaughter of Sugar Pine Media, Kent’s advertising agency, created the spot. Slaughter played drums, bass and piano. He was accompanied by Kyle Stolz on saxophone. They shot the commercial in one day.
“It’s funny, but I don’t think it was that funny to me, but, hell, look at the exposure,” Pfrimmer said. “I have got for $500 (the price to replace the window) exposure you couldn’t buy for $500,000.”
The original video also has been featured on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” CNN and Tosh.O.
The surveillance footage went viral in late March after Redding police released it and Redding.com posted it on YouTube. The video had accumulated more than 6.5 million views on YouTube by Tuesday evening.
“He wanted to jump on something and make an advertisement out of it,” Pfrimmer said of Slaughter. “To a point that is OK, but you can also wear something like that out. I don’t want to get to the point where people are saying, ‘God, I have to look at that thing again and listen to that thing again.’ ”
Slaughter got the idea for the commercial soon after the video went viral. He was worried the hilarious clip would give the north state more infamous publicity, joining the online photos of three female Anderson KFC employees bathing in the restaurant’s industrial-sized sink, and a crook with the F-word tattooed across his forehead.
“I wanted to figure out a way to change the message in the video into something to help a local business,” Slaughter said. “I hope this spins it in a positive way.
“I don’t want Redding to appear like we are a bunch of stumbling burglars, so this was an opportunity to change the message a little bit.”
Slaughter is no stranger to publicity.
In 2006, he led a student crusade at Shasta High School against campus bans of soda vending machines that drew national attention. Slaughter’s fight was spotlighted when he appeared n MSNBC’s “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.”
Meanwhile, Pfrimmer plans to run the commercial for at least two weeks.
“Maybe a month if people are still enjoying it,” Pfrimmer said. “We are advertising our pastrami and we are very proud of it; we make it right here.”
