Freestyle
Music Park
Hair Replacement Roller Coaster Challenger
Here's
the TV Ad that started it all:
Here is Dennis' Letter to the Park Management:
June
2, 2009
John Stine
Director of Marketing
Freestyle Music Park
211 George Bishop Parkway
Myrtle Beach, SC 29579
Mr. Stine:
Congratulations on your successful opening of the
new Freestyle Music
Park. I have heard good comments from friends and
clients who have been there. I wish you all the best
in bringing family entertainment to the Myrtle Beach
area.
I would like to take a moment to talk about your
television spot that you are running. In it you show
a family of four and the father is obviously wearing
a very bad, old fashioned hair system which is
almost blown off from the force of the ride. Now I
understand the concept. It’s a great visual; a way
of conveying your message in a comical style. What
you might not have considered is the underlying
message that you have sent: if you are a person who
has suffered hair loss, the Time Machine and
possibly an overall experience at Freestyle Music
Park is not meant for you.
When you poke fun at someone wearing a hair system,
you are actually ridiculing men, women and children
who have lost their hair from a number of different
reasons not the least of which are burns,
chemotherapy, lupus, menopause, medication ( like
the anti-rejection drugs I take to maintain my life
saving liver transplant ) or the four million
Americans who suffer from Alopecia. I’m sure you
where not aware of these tragic facts when you
approved this spot for broadcast.
As for the fact that the Time machine would blow off
a hair system I would like to contend that this
could be false advertising. I have been a hair
restoration client myself the past 23 years. I have
ridden roller coasters from Coney Island to Cedar
Point to Myrtle Beach. As the owner of a hair
restoration studio in Surfside Beach I have every
confidence that today’s cutting edge methods of
dealing with hair loss could withstand the power of
even the mighty Time Machine. Therefore I issue you
this fun challenge. Invite me out to ride your
coaster and let’s see if my hair can withstand the
force of your ride. Let’s invite the TV stations to
film this challenge. I am sending them all a copy of
this letter. You name the day and time and I’ll be
there. I can be reached at 843-238-1089.
This challenge will make winners of all of us, but
especially, it will let hair loss sufferers know
that there is hope for them and they too can enjoy
your park and feel total confidence as they take the
front seat in the mighty Time Machine.
Morning Edition,July 24, 2009 · In
South Carolina, a TV ad for a local roller
coaster shows it going so fast, a rider loses
his hairpiece. The owner of a South Carolina
hair replacement shop was not amused. So Dennis
Murphy rode the 150-foot coaster in Myrtle Beach
— and emerged windblown, but with his toupee
still on top. Mr. Murphy said his hair was
designed to "blow in the breeze."
Dennis is interviewed on the Dwyer &
Michaels morning show.
MYRTLE BEACH
- A Murrells Inlet man says nothing - not even a
ride on a 150-foot roller coaster - can blow off
his beloved toupee.
And Freestyle
Music Park is giving him a chance to prove it
this morning.
Dennis Murphy,
owner of Hairquarters, a hair replacement store
in Surfside Beach, will ride The Time Machine at
the amusement park to prove his point.
Murphy says
the park's TV commercial, featuring a
middle-aged man who loses part of his toupee
after riding The Time Machine, is bologna.
"While it was
not the park's intention to offend Mr. Murphy or
anyone who uses a hair replacement system, we
stand behind our commercial and its premise of
portraying 'full volume family fun,'" John
Stine, director of sales and marketing, said in
a statement.
"The only time
you see somebody wearing a hair replacement
system is when it gets blown off by something,"
said Murphy, who has unashamedly worn a hair
piece for 23 years. "If your roller coaster's so
big and bad, let's see what it'll do to me."
"Am I worried
about my hair coming off tomorrow?" he said.
"No."
Contributing: The Associated Press; The Aiken Standard; The
(Myrtle Beach) Sun News
Friday, Jul 24, 2009
Posted on Thu, Jul. 23, 2009
Toupee vs. Time Machine:
Which came out on top?
Monique Newton
mnewton@thesunnews.com
A present-day
toupee can survive the twists, turns and dips of
a 150-foot roller coaster.
This morning,
Dennis Murphy, owner of Hairquarters, a hair
replacement store in Surfside Beach, rode The
Time Machine at Freestyle Music Park to disprove
what he considered to be inaccurate portrayal of
a middle-aged man losing part of his toupee in a
scene of the park's TV commercial.
Murphy kept
his hands on the roller coaster handles and the
brownish gray hair piece stayed snug on his head
throughout the entire ride.
It was intact
by the ride's end, only showing signs of a
strong wind.
"I don't know
if I proved my point," said 63-year-old Murphy.
"I proved it to me and that's all I care about
... As you saw on the ride, [the toupee] blows
in the breeze."
He said he
doesn't think Freestyle Music Park will pull the
advertisement, and that's okay.
"It's a great
ride. I appreciate them giving me the
opportunity," he said. "Hopefully, people will
come out and see that it's not a big deal."
John Stine,
director of sales and marketing at the amusement
park, sat next to Murphy throughout the ride.
"I'm pleased
to say that he proved us wrong," he said. "It
came out of leftfield, but we wanted to
respond."
Stine said their TV spot advertisements are meant to be "fun
and humorous" and that they have no intention in
offending anyone. At this time, Freestyle Music
Park has no plans to stop running the ad.
Toupee 1, SC roller coaster 0
The Associated Press
A South
Carolina man who wears a toupee challenged the
roller coaster at Myrtle Beach's Freestyle Music
Park and came out on top - with his hairpiece
still on top as well.
The Sun News
of Myrtle Beach reported Dennis Murphy rode the
park's 150-foot tall Time Machine coaster
Thursday and didn't lose his hairpiece.
Murphy runs a
local hair replacement business and objected to
a park television ad showing the coaster moving
so fast a man loses his hairpiece. Murphy said
the ad put hair replacement in a bad light.
He rode with
his hands inside the coaster and didn't need to
hold his hairpiece which appeared only as though
he had been in a strong wind.
The 63-year-old Murphy says he appreciated the park giving
him a chance to prove his point.
By
Rusty Ray
WBTW Anchor/Producer
Published: July 23, 2009
Dennis Murphy (in red
shirt), a local hair replacement specialist,
rode The Time Machine roller coaster on Thursday
to prove his hair replacement system wouldn’t
blow away.
Dennis Murphy
recently sent a letter to Freestyle Music Park,
taking exception to a television commercial that
shows a man and his family—and the man’s
toupee—blown away by The Time Machine roller
coaster at the park.
Murphy, who owns
Hair Quarters hair replacement in Surfside
Beach, said the commercial doesn’t adequately
represent what people like him—who have hair
replacements like toupees and other
means—actually go through.
“The only time
(in television and movies) you see someone
wearing hair like that is in a disasterous
situation,“ Murphy said.
So, Freestyle
Music Park officials invited Murphy to come out
and take a spin on the roller coaster, and let
him show the park—and anyone else—that it’s okay
to wear hair and ride the twisting, looping,
speeding thrill ride.
“Why should you
be harassed or made fun of because you want to
do something about (hair loss)?“ he said.
Murphy said he
wears his hair replacement system all the time,
with no problems, and only takes if off a few
times a month.
“I guess I tell
people they should try being in a business
where, if you do your best work possible, nobody
ever notices,“ he said. “We don’t get
word-of-mouth advertising.“
Toupee Test at Freestyle Music
Park
By
Allyson Floyd
Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 8:23
p.m.
You've probably seen that ad for
Freestyle Music park that shows a man's toupee
almost blowing off during a roller coaster ride.
Thursday, a Surfside Beach man
challenged that.
Dennis Murphy is the owner of
Hairquarters. He's also a client.
He issued this challenge to show
that it's not funny to make fun of people
wearing hair systems. "People get veneers and
polys and all this and that and we don't tell
them they have false teeth. People get contacts
and we don't yell at them because they don't
want to wear glasses. Why is it such a big deal
if you want to improve your appearance?"
We asked him if he thought he
proved his point.
"I don't know if I proved my
point. I proved it to myself and that was all I
really cared about," said Murphy.
Other than a few hairs out of
place as you would expect after a coaster ride,
Murphy's hair did withstand the force of The
Time Machine.
Pas si décoiffant que ça...
25 Juillet 2009
MYRTLE BEACH, Caroline du
Sud (AP) - Le gérant d'une entreprise
commercialisant des cheveux factices a fait un
tour de montagnes russes jeudi à Myrtle Beach,
en Caroline du Sud, afin de redorer l'image des
perruques, selon lui malmenée par une publicité
télévisée pour le manège.
Le spot montrait un homme embarqué dans la "Time
Machine", haute de 45 mètres, perdant sa
moumoute sous l'effet de la vitesse du manège.
Dennis Murphy s'est donc embarqué dans
l'attraction jeudi pour prouver que sa perruque
ne s'envolerait pas.
Son postiche a passé le test, restant
effectivement en place sans qu'il ait besoin de
le tenir avec les mains, a rapporté le journal
"Sun News of Myrtle Beach".
M. Murphy a dit apprécier que le parc
d'attractions "Freestyle Music" lui donne ainsi
l'occasion de prouver son point de vue. Les
responsables du parc ont précisé que la
publicité avait été conçue pour amuser, et
qu'ils continueraient à la diffuser.
