How to Silence Your Rooster with Dynamite
Update: I realize a lot of you are searching for the hilarious Silence Your Rooster video clips. Here’s a link to the official site. I’ve set it up to open a new window so that, while you’re waiting for it to load (it takes forever) you can either finish this post or enjoy some of my more popular entries.
Today I started getting a lot of unusual traffic from search engines. What’s interesting about that is that I am getting a lot of it from people searching for ads involving the sleep-aid, Ambien.
Apparently, the Ambien people are running some wacky ads featuring a mixed-up rooster that not only crows in the middle of the night, but also shoots hoops, plays the drums, sets off car alarms, and runs the vacuum. The ad campaigns are titled: Silence Your Rooster.
At the time I write this, the phrase, “Silence Your Rooster” is the 6th most searched phrase on Google and I’m getting gobs of residual rooster-related traffic. Unfortunately, when people reach Dead Rooster looking for these ads, they are instead treated with llamas filled with cream corn and Elvis on Elvis chain-fights.
Sorry about that you guys. 
Ambien has set up a pretty impressive, albeit very slow, web site with all the ad videos, news about AmbienCR and a pretty lame game in which you try to silence the rooster by throwing pillows at it.
What I suggest to anyone actually wanting to get some sleep, is to visit Silence Your Rooster and try and stay awake long enough for the extremely slow web site to load. I’m sure it’s due to the high-traffic and massive load on the server but, at least for today, there’s your sleeping pill.
Comments
Comment from HaPPi Like a HiPPo
Time: August 21, 2008, 8:05 pm
You’re right! that website takes ages to load.
Comment from Milena
Time: August 21, 2008, 8:53 pm
I’m thinking of inserting the word “Rooster” into the title of my blog. What think you?
Comment from ettarose
Time: August 22, 2008, 2:59 am
So are you up in the middle of the night, shooting baskets while running your vacuum in your car?
Comment from Milena
Time: August 22, 2008, 9:02 am
Or how about Rooster Thoughts?
You’re funny.
William McCamment reply on August 22nd, 2008 9:28 am:
Hey, that’s MY territory!
Comment from Vixen
Time: August 22, 2008, 9:21 am
I saw my first of these ads last night, but they didn’t tell what it was for. So I naturally went to the website. The funny part is then I clicked over to my feedreader and saw this post!
William McCamment reply on August 22nd, 2008 9:31 am:
Believe it or not, I haven’t seen one on TV yet. If it weren’t for my Statcounter and the search phrase feature, I wouldn’t even know about it. LOL
Comment from kathcom
Time: August 22, 2008, 4:37 pm
Think of all the sleepless people who are being accidentally entertained. You’re providing a real service.
I hope the makers of Ambien are not advocating violence against roosters. I’m reading your blog because I assume your rooster was dead when you found it.
Comment from Laryalee
Time: August 22, 2008, 5:04 pm
It’s nice to meet you…you’re #1 in Google for “silence your rooster”!
But I don’t hear any roosters, it was just curiosity.
Anyway, hello from the lovely Shuswap Lake area, British Columbia, Canada…
Laryalee
William McCamment reply on August 23rd, 2008 5:21 am:
Nice to meet you too, Laryalee! I’m glad you found me!
Comment from jAmIe
Time: August 23, 2008, 7:02 pm
I just saw my 1st commercial of the rooster and my sis & i were like what?
Comment from Lucid Gal
Time: August 24, 2008, 8:36 am
Hilarious? Those Ambien ads are the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a long time. And their corporate website is a nightmare. When did we decide that weird-for-the-sake-of-weird is funny? That doesn’t take any intelligence at all.
William McCamment reply on August 24th, 2008 10:30 am:
I agree with you 100%. They are not funny; however, when someone types the SYR search phrase into Google, the word “hilarious” in the description helps to bring more visitors to my blog. LOL
Comment from Pounce
Time: August 24, 2008, 11:39 am
If the makers of Ambien are looking for weird, they need look no further than the reported side effects of their product. When I took Ambien, I didn’t need a rooster to awaken me in the middle of the night…without provocation, I simply arose, strolled into my kitchen, and helped myself to a hearty “breakfast” of hummus with pita bread, mango sherbet, a couple of almond cookies, and crumbled blue cheese on trisuits. I had absolutely no memory of having so shamelessly pigged out the next morning. None…just the crumbs on the counter & the empty containers in the trash to tell the story. I hope your blog doesn’t cause similar side effects.
William McCamment reply on August 24th, 2008 11:51 am:
Wow! How did you feel the next morning? Stomach ache? LOL
Comment from Michele
Time: August 24, 2008, 5:24 pm
You’r web site is pretty interesting, thanks, now I’ll check out the ambien sit , mite get kiked off!
William McCamment reply on August 24th, 2008 5:55 pm:
Well, if you get kicked off, it’s not that big a loss–it really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Comment from Laryalee
Time: August 24, 2008, 5:46 pm
Hi William,
I just had to come back because I’m laughing after reading about you and your, uh, famous novel: “Eskimo Love Triangle: The Story of Incessant Barking Outside the Igloo”…
Did you ever imagine how much fame you’d gain from a sleep aid advertisement?
Laryalee
P.S. I just subscribed to your blog, and would like to commend FeedBurner for providing the confirmation letters in a font that this granny can actually read!
William McCamment reply on August 24th, 2008 6:01 pm:
Eskimo Love Triangle–Haha! I wrote that “About Me” page so long ago I forgot about that. LOL
I’ve gotten some pretty good traffic from the Ambien ad. I hit the top of the front page at Google at precisely the same time the SYR search phrase hit #1. I got clobbered with hits…and, I loved every minute of it. Hehe!
Pingback from Silence The Rooster Ad Campaign Crowing Success | DeadRooster.com
Time: August 25, 2008, 11:26 am
[...] To give you an idea of how effective this “easy exposure” technique can be, let me show you the noticeable jump in traffic I received after writing a simple related article: [...]
Comment from Walter Moody
Time: August 26, 2008, 4:03 pm
Thanks for saving my time, nice to meet you.
William McCamment reply on August 26th, 2008 4:40 pm:
Hi Walter, nice to meet you too!
Comment from marv
Time: August 27, 2008, 4:06 pm
Since I am not a grammatically sensitive person I will stick around and visit before I check out the Ambian Rooster! Thanks for letting all of us drop by!
William McCamment reply on August 28th, 2008 10:49 am:
Grammatically sensitive people explode when they find my blog.
Comment from Kathy
Time: September 3, 2008, 6:24 pm
cock-a-doodle-doo to all of you
William McCamment reply on September 3rd, 2008 7:14 pm:
Cock-a-doodle-doo to you too!
Comment from Scott
Time: October 28, 2008, 7:19 am
The ads are hilarious! I just found this site doing a google search. Cool stuff!
I’m unsure how we can tie into our gift basket site, but worth the try
William McCamment reply on October 28th, 2008 7:23 am:
Hi Scott!
The Silence Your Rooster ads were a major traffic source a few months ago. Believe it or not, I still get a few people searching for it every day. LOL
William McCamment reply on August 21st, 2008 8:29 pm:
I think it will speed up after the initial surge wears off.
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