An Adman Conquers Reddit With the World’s Weirdest Fliers

You may have seen one of Whit Hiler's fliers. Perhaps it invited you to a meet-up that promised a re-creation of scenes from The Human Centipede. ("Just for fun. Guys only.") Maybe it offered masturbation lessons ("I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made!") or the services of an "Asian impersonator." Or perhaps it made you aware of the Rainbow Bus Club, which meets in back of a Starbucks and is "strictly for straight men that wanna get together with other straight men and pretend to be gay for an hour or so."

Hiler's fliers are fake, but people have been fooled by them. Many of them have also made Reddit's front page, which it turns out was pretty much Hiler's main goal.

Hiler, who works at Cornett Integrated Marketing Solutions in Lexington, Ky., has been involved in other rogue projects, including the recent "Kentucky kicks ass" tourism effort. He spoke with AdFreak about the fliers, where he got his loony ideas, and what he wanted to accomplish with his creations.

When did you first have the idea to create these fake fliers? What about fliers seems ripe for parody?

A little over a year ago I made it my mission to try and figure out Reddit, to get some of that hot Internet action. If you're new to Reddit, it's kind of a tough nut to crack. Specifically, I wanted to figure out how to create content that rises to the top and eventually lands on the front page. So my goal was to make the front page. Through a little experimentation, the fake fliers ended up becoming my weapon of choice.

Why fliers? Fliers are really simple. Anyone can make them. You don't even need a computer. I'm not a designer. I could make them myself. It's not hard to pick the worst fonts and drop and drag strange images.

As far as sharable content goes, images work the best and are easiest to consume. Plus, images of fliers have already proven to be popular on the Internet. Did you ever see the Lionel Richie "Is it me you're looking for?" flier?

There's already a lot of strange fliers out there. Craigslist ads, too. So they are believable.

You certainly jumped right in with the Human Centipede flier. Were you looking to shock people, or just amuse them? Did you assume people might think it was real?

I knew the Internet already had a fixation with the Human Centipede. Like an event flier, the movie was about bringing people together. I also knew Reddit loved really weird stuff. For some strange reason, I got the idea to put together this sick-minded flier for a Human Centipede Meet-Up, asking people to "meet at noon to roshambo for positions."

The goal was to both shock and amuse. I figured if any place got a kick out of it, it would be Reddit. We're talking about the Internet here, so I really didn't assume anything. Just hoped for the best.

From this idea, another buddy and myself created a infographic called the Human Centipede of Advertising, which we dropped last Halloween. The possibilities with the Human Centipede are endless.

The Rainbow Bus Club flier might be your most successful. Where did you get the ridiculous idea for that one?

The Human Centipede Meet-Up got me hooked. It did well, but it didn't make the [Reddit] front page. I needed something a little hotter. The initial idea for the Rainbow Bus Club came years ago at a friend's house. It started as a big joke—the idea of straight guys getting together, sitting around and pretending to be gay. Anytime I'd mention it to someone, they'd laugh their ass off. Guys already do this (visit a fraternity). It just needed an official name. I just never did anything with it. Reddit seemed like the perfect home for the Rainbow Bus Club. It's by far been the most successful, hitting the front page twice. Tosh.0, too.

Is it true that people actually showed up for that event?

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