The Last Blockbuster on Earth located in Bend is enjoying a boom in sales of online products, thanks to a wannabe Super Bowl commercial featuring a cockroach.
Blockbuster debuted the apocalyptic commercial on Instagram during the Super Bowl. It was produced for considerably less than the $7 million most advertisers paid to appear for 30 seconds during the broadcast.
Since then, it has been viewed tens of thousands — possibly hundreds of thousands — of times as it spreads across various social media platforms.
“I am not the creative person, but I am smart enough to say yes to the super smart creative people,” said Sandi Harding, Blockbuster general manager.
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Since the commercial appeared on social media and media outlets began publicizing it, sales of Blockbuster’s online products exploded 300%.
“We’re a small business. We might average five-to-seven online sales per day. We had 40 orders today to process. We were super busy getting them together, shipping them out.”
Harding says the sales spike is good not only for the locally-owned Blockbuster, but also for the local companies that supply the t-shirts, stickers and monogrammed products that people are snapping up online.
“People were asking us ‘Why do you have this remote control cockroach in the dirt? What are you guys doing?’” Harding said. “But everybody in town, when they told them they were doing a commercial for us, was super supportive. That made me feel very proud. Not only am I a part of the Last Blockbuster, but I’m part of a great community. It was really fun.”
The last Blockbuster on Earth is enjoying a boom in sales of its 30 online products ranging from t-shirts to sweaters to their number one selling item, a trucker’s cap with the Blockbuster logo.
All thanks to a cockroach named Steve.
