Underwear maker Comfyballs was banned from operating in the states after a ruling by the US patent office declaring its name "vulgar" due to the inclusion of the word "balls".

We refused to accept the decision and created a campaign to engage media and US citizens in a fight for their balls. The campaign contained the website www.fightforyourballs.com where people could vote for whether or not balls are immoral, a viral film that called for legitimization of Comfyballs and a press release. We had no budgets for paid advertising, and was solely dependent on earned media to get engagement in the brand.

In total the campaign has generated more than 130 articles in local and international press. During the campaign period from 9th of December to 20th of April traffic increased with 72%, and total sales increased with 34% compared to the previous months.

Our first response to the ban from the USPTO was to engage the press in what seemed, at least from a Scandinavian perspective, like a strange decision.

Our second response was to create a campaign to engage the US and other citizens at www.fightforyourballs.com. Here we wanted people to engage by voting against the stance of the USPTO that balls are immoral.

To create traffic we produced a short viral video. The video tested the limits of vulgarity - showing free ranging balls, and called for legitimization of Comfyballs. It was hosted on youtube and embedded on www.fightforyourballs.com.

We didn´t have money for paid distribution of the video so we had to relay on earned media. We wrote a press release telling the press that we wanted to take it to the extreme – and test whether showing normal, unretouched balls would be sickening or not.

The story has been published in major international international media like The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Huffington Post, The Gawker and The New York Post.

The launch of the viral video on www.fightforyourballs.com resulted in accompanied by a press release resulted in editorial coverage in The Telegraph, on Mashable and Norways largest media vehicle VG. After 3 days the video had close to 100.000 views on Youtube and Vimeo, and more than 6000 people had voted against balls being immoral on www.fightforyourballs.com. The webstore traffic went to a new all-time high of 16.051 visits a day.

In total the campaign has generated more than 130 articles in local and international press.

The campaign has played a big part in improved business results for Comfyballs. During the campaign period from 9th of December to 20th of April traffic increased with 72%, and total sales increased with 34% compared to previous months.