How AWARD School graduate Jess Wheeler’s ‘Enchanted BBQ’ ad went viral around the world

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Wheeler-BBQ.jpgJess Wheeler is a junior copywriter and recent AWARD School graduate, trying desperately to break into the industry.

There are a number of projects he’s working on, and one of them has gone viral over the last week.

On December 29, after much nagging from the Mrs, he put a satirical ad up on Gumtree to get rid of their old barbie.

After only 36 hours it approached 9,000 views, and he was inundated with texts, emails, calls and voice mails.

Since then The enchanted BBQ has gone viral all over the world.

Wheeler told CB: “I have been receiving messages from Brazil, South Africa, Canada, America etc…  My phone and email have been bombarded with literally hundreds of messages.”

A Google search of ‘enchanted BBQ’ will find a number of links to internet forums and other areas where it is being spoken about.

Says Wheeler: “The visitor counter crashed and was reset on the Gumtree ad, and we lost at least 100,000 hits unfortunately. According to LinkTally, it has been shared over 50,000 times on Facebook alone.

“I have received all kinds of hilarious, and often bizarre, messages from people including romantic advances and marriage proposals, people offering to trade their souls, a man offered to trade his wife, and one woman sent a message saying that the ad had saved her husband’s life by giving her a much needed laugh, which prompted her to ‘postpone a completely justifiable homicide’.

“I’ve had some offers of freelance work and writing gigs in the music industry and various areas, but really I just want to get into a creative agency as a copywriter.”

Wheeler is hoping a creative director reading this could give him his first chance in the industry.

He can be contacted on 0412288198 or via email