Snoop Dogg may not be the first person you think of when contemplating cybersecurity, but a new ad campaign from Norton, the antivirus company, hopes to change that. Tha Boss Dogg is the face of Norton’s “Hack is Wack” venture, an effort to spread the word about cybercrime to a demographic Norton feels does not take the issue seriously enough.
The centerpiece of the Hack is Wack ad campaign is a website where users can submit videos of their own anti-cybercrime raps. The entrant judged to have the tightest flow, dopest rhymes and fattest beats will win tickets to see Snoop Dogg in concert, a free laptop and a chance to meet Snoop’s agent.
But why pick the D-O double-Gizzle to headline the campaign? Because, like so many Americans, the Doggfather has himself been a victim of cybercrime.
By both personalizing the issue, and by speaking with the authority that only a former gang member, convict, and noted marijuana enthusiast can muster, Norton hopes that Snoop can get young people to recognize the dangers of computer crime.
“He really represents, at this stage in life, what’s cool. And he’s trying to say, ‘cyber crime is uncool,’” said Rhonda Shantz, VP of Global Brand Marketing and PR for Norton.
In Norton’s eyes, Snoop has become something of a father figure, shedding his pornographic video-producing, blunt-smoking image for that of a family man with his mind on cybersecurity and cybersecurity on his mind.
“The consumers that follow him are recognizing how he’s been out there, changing his brand, over the course of many years,” said Sally Jenkins, VP of Worldwide Marketing for Norton. “That’s why we thought, ‘gosh, because of this image change he’s been after for six, seven years, we should allow him to talk about how [cybercrime] is real.’”
The Hack is Whack contest runs through the end of September, so make those videos soon if you want to put a 187 on cybercrime. Church.