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Tyre Demonstration Takes on Gravity

A heavy duty radial tyre has turned away from regular tyre promotions. Rather than tackling other tyres and their manufacturers, BFGoodrich has taken on gravity. See for yourself:




To demonstrate the KO2’s durability, the tyre was dropped from a whooping 10,000 feet, a velocity which would cause most tyres to explode upon impact. Three other tyres were also dropped from varying heights off camera. These tyres were then shown fastened onto a car which proceeded to drive away without a hitch.

This seems to be just one in a string of recent stunt advertising campaigns. Most similar being when a man did the splits over two reversing trucks to prove Volvo’s precision handling. Are these risky stunts tricky business? Or perhaps are they calculated costs with very strategic marketers predicting their success.

In BFGoodirch’s case at least, it was a very calculated decision which involved months of planning.Brand communications manager Duane Thomas told Adweek, “When you do a project this ambitious, you have to do some homework.” Say, for example, figuring out the height from which a regular production radial tire could fall without exploding on impact. “We worked with some physicists in trying to figure out the approach and how the tire could survive.”