Frankly, I’m surprised I’ve not heard more about this both inside the ad industry and from the public in general. It’s very well done from the creative standpoint. There is a clever, entertaining premise underpinning it all and a soft enough sell to sneak under the radar. You get to enjoy about 11 minutes of compelling, funny, sensitive narrative before the product placement shows up and even then, it manages the rare feat of seeming unforced.

There’s also some real value here. For young girls, it seems to go a long way toward validating the emotions I am told surround this uncomfortable event. And for some boys it may provide a perspective they can understand which in turn might lead to a little empathy rather than the standard antagonism.

If this initiative works, it also would do so flying in the face of the conventional wisdom that Millennials don’t sit still long enough to absorb longer form content.

Like the Dove real-beauty campaign, my guess is any success here will stem from the sincerity and honesty of the message. There’s no hyperbole, no promises, and no exaggeration – right down to Zack’s blog actually providing useful resources for the target in context and wrapping it in entertaining, engaging writing.

It’s also nice to see inventive work for one of those ‘dull categories’that no one believes can lead to innovative, buzzworthy work. There seems to be an unspoken prerequisite that only interesting, sexy products or high shock-value stunts can conjure viral interest. Yet Dove soap did it by understanding the customer on a very deep level. This depth of insight also seems well articulated by Zack16.com.

If anyone knows some hard data on the success of this program I’d be interested in learning more.