FreshBooks launches ‘Would You Rather?’ campaign with a rectal-exam-giving honey badger

Fans of the old Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger viral video, or honey badgers in general, will enjoy the new campaign from FreshBooks, the accounting software, which includes a cameo from the notoriously ferocious mammal—in a surprising medical setting.

The spot, created by Ostrich Studios and directed by the Perlorian Brothers, introduces a campaign themed “Would You Rather?” The amusing work sets up a broadly comic, repeatable premise that will be expressed across executions in the coming months.

“We wanted to put the pain of accounting on par with how people really feel when it comes to number crunching,” Ostrich founder Patrick Scissons told Ad Age. “FreshBooks understands this better than anyone else, which is why they design their software to be as simple as possible to use.”

The background to the campaign involves insights into small-business owners—that most fail not because they’re not good at what they do, but because the owner can’t manage money.  Many small-business entrepreneurs dread doing the accounting admin work, which takes time and effort. Scaling the business is often the most challenging part, with multiple projects, cashflow and time management concerns—all of which FreshBooks can help with.

“We really wanted to push the creative boundaries for the category,” said Paul Cowan, CMO at FreshBooks. “Grabbing people’s attention about accounting isn’t easy. The campaign’s ‘Would you rather’ insight and breakthrough appeal, while also making people laugh, is a big win for our team.”

The global campaign is launching in Canada, the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand. There is also radio, digital out of home and social media planned as part of a follow-up to the hero film.