Now You Can Hear Mel Gibson’s Anti-Jewish Rant on Your Cell Phone

The intense media attention paid to Mel Gibson in the wake of his DUI arrest caused a light bulb to go off over the head of the design team at Oasys Mobile, a Raleigh, NC-based developer of content and applications for wireless devices. Oasys competes with a growing number of companies for mobile content sales, so they pounced on the opportunity to profit from "Melgate" by hiring a voice actor that sounded just like the star. They recorded a recreation of Mel’s anti-Semitic meltdown, bleeping out the profanity, and then offered the download free on their website.

When asked what kind of response the company has garnered from their "Mel in Malibu" ringtone, Oasys Chief Executive Gary Ban said, "Huge—absolutely huge." By offering the ringtone for free, the company has received extensive media attention and drawn in a multitude of potential paying customers for content and tools the company produces. Oasys offers a wide variety of applications including ringtones, wallpapers, and an innovative online "locker" where customers can store content they have purchased.

The market for ringtones isn’t as large as some may think. Only about 10% of wireless customers download ringtones and only about 4% play games, according to M:Metrics, a mobile market research think tank. The most popular application for cell phones other than talking is text messaging, which about 33% of users do on a regular basis. Oasys has earned a steadily growing reputation since its inception by producing innovative mobile games. Two Oasys titles made the M:Metrics Top 10 Best-Seller list in May, and wireless carriers Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, Alltel, and T-Mobile all offer Oasys content. The company has also signed on with Sony BMG to sell thousands of ringtones.

Ban said that Oasys has to be flexible in order to win customers and to create content that the public will want. The company’s ringtone library includes a diversity of material, such as classical music, hip hop tunes, celebrity impressions, nature sounds, and electronic synthesized sounds. The "Mel in Malibu" ringtone marked the first "scandal" offering by Oasys, but it will probably not be the last. "You have to be quick on your feet," Ban said, adding that the company "shifts resources" in order to remain competitive.