White Bear Mitsubishi puts out commercials every two to three months—but the outtakes on one of their commercials are what is catching people’s attention lately. The YouTube video of their White Bear mascot falling over and over again has gotten more than 75 million views between YouTube and Facebook. The video was just something to make people smile over the holidays, says general manager Richard Herod III. “We put it up, and I think the first day it had 10,000 views,” Herod says. “The first weekend, it went over 100,000 and we were, like, huh? How did that happen? And the video just kept going and going.”
After Bette Midler and Trainwreck director Judd Apatow shared the video, it blew up even further. “I’m in bed and all of a sudden my phone starts ringing off the hook at 4 in the morning with all these phone numbers from New York,” Herod says. “I wake up and all of a sudden my friends are texting me, ‘Hey, Richard, your video was on Good Morning America.’ And I’m, like, ‘What?’ ”
The video was also shown on CNN, ESPN Sports Center, along with countless local news stations, and Herod has done interviews with BBC and Buzzfeed. He says that the White Bear mascot has been popular since they added it in August 2011, and these 75 million views have definitely helped with business.
So why was the bear falling so much? The answer: his feet. “The bottom of his feet are like sandal material. So if you could imagine walking on freshly Zamboni’ed ice with sandals—that’s what the problem was,” Herod explains.
There’s no doubt that Herod is shocked by all the attention. “I was in California for a business meeting and one of my Japanese colleagues looked at me and said, ‘Hey, I have to take a selfie with you so I can show all my friends that I met you,’ ” Herod says. “It’s all kinds of crazy.”
