Keeping A Civil Tongue
There are still two months left in 2000, but I’m going out on a limb and making my nomination for Most Distasteful Promotion of the Year right now.
My relatively obscure selection goes to Greg “Lumpy” Lambert, the used-car salesman from Powell, TN, who hosted “Second Amendment Saturday” in August. Lumpy decided to declare his love for the Second Amendment – and hopefully sell a few “Low Mileage” and “Like New” humdingers – by rewarding buyers with discounts on second-hand hunting rifles at a gun shop in nearby West Knoxville.
In terms of knowing his audience and making a relevant offer, Lumpy might have had a good idea. The co-marketing strategy gets kudos as well. And as for results, he did sell one car, which covered roughly 20 percent of his typical monthly volume.
So why the criticism? Because Lumpy added a traffic-driving component to his promotion that gave away free squirt guns to all children who accompanied their parents to the dealership.
I’m no prude. And I’m no anti-gun advocate, either. My childhood was filled with G.I. Joe and war games in the woods. I lived in Western New York for a few years, in towns where I was the only male on Saturday mornings in November who wasn’t out hunting deer. But I can’t help feeling that such a cavalier attitude about guns isn’t harmful in some way. It reminds me of that chilling Time cover photo of one of the Columbine High School killers as a fatigue-wearing, gun-toting toddler.
While I’m at it, I might as well offer my nomination for Most Distasteful Execution of the Year as well. That one goes to comedian and Rolling Rock spokesperson Jim Gaffigan, who during the Rolling Rock Town Fair concert in the brand’s hometown in August praised women who exposed themselves in public because “that’s what Latrobe is all about.”
No, it’s not, and I’m sure the marketing folks at Rolling Rock agree. Because there certainly needs to be concern for civic responsibility involved in the promotional planning process. I’m not talking about banning all political incorrectness or appropriately bawdy concepts, like tobacco marketer Rooster tying in with Playboy for a sweeps, or Heineken using a naked Austin Powers to sell beer. (PROMO Expo attendees will notice this magazine is not above reproach in this respect, since we had the WCW Nitro Girls signing autographs at our booth.) If that’s what works with your customers, then by all means give it a try. But be sure it will work: According to Internet reviews of the Rolling Rock concert, Gaffigan’s pronouncement was rebuked by one of the acts – a popular musician named Moby (How embarrassing is that?). And it only took one offended employee to make Disney fork over $2 million for the now-infamous “Black Hoe” on-air radio promotion.
While you’re appealing to the baser natures of your customers, it wouldn’t hurt to try enriching their lives on occasion.
The WWF serves as a good example of having your cake, but eating your vegetables, too. The company is often vilified for glorifying sex and violence and – make no mistake about it – does market sex and violence. But its Smackdown Your Vote! promotion (see “Techno-Stumping,” pg. 95) with MTV – another brand oft-considered to be corrupting youth – is registering voters at a clip of 10,000 per week. The WWF isn’t beating anybody over the head with its social message (then again, I guess you’d have to say it is), and the program is definitely a marketing campaign. But the effort proves that even The Rock has a social conscience, and that’s a positive thing.
So please, no more water pistols.
The wife and I bought a Dell computer last month. It was one of the greatest promotional bargains of my life.
In addition to a great price on a top-of-the-line desktop model, we got a free scanner, a one-year subscription to America Online, and a three-year warranty for the price of a two-year one.
