A 1980s Punk/New Wave band from Ohio and a wire and cable manufacturer from Georgia might not have a lot in common. But Devo and Southwire Co., Carrolton, Ga., have come together on a remake of an iconic song that encourages electrical contractors to “Rip It.” The collaboration has resulted in a new video that promotes Southwire's SIMpull Rip CHIP disc, which helps electrical professionals save time, while eliminating the need to use a knife to remove the stretch wrap placed around wire reels to keep them clean, dry and secure during shipping.
“The Rip CHIP disc is a fun and effective addition to our packaging that we launched earlier this year as a way to make life easier for contractors on job sites,” said Jack Carlson, president of Southwire's Electrical Division. “It wasn't that far of a reach for the 80s music fans in our company to take ‘Whip It' and make it ‘Rip It.'”
Southwire's ad agency, Eric Mower + Associates, Syracuse, N.Y., helped rewrite the lyrics to the iconic song and Southwire lined up original Devo band members Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale to record ‘Rip It' in Los Angeles earlier this year. A number of electrical contractors have starring roles in ‘Rip It,' singing the song and doing a Devo-inspired dance in Devo-style hard hats—while at the same time demonstrating how to use the Rip CHIP disc. You can watch the ‘Rip It' video by clicking on www.southwireanddevo.com or on the image.
About the Author
Jim Lucy Blog
Chief Editor
Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.