Maybe I’m a bit predisposed to focus on anything remotely related to advertising (studied it in college, spent my entire career in the biz in some way, shape or form), but I had to laugh when I caught a recent Simpsons rerun (“My Fair Laddy”). While the main story line was Lisa’s science project to make Willie (the school gardener) into a proper gentleman (a la My Fair Lady, Pygmalion, etc.), Homer’s grassroots marketing campaign was center stage in the subplot. After ripping a major hole in his favorite blue pants, he discovers the company (Worldwide Pants) has quit making them due to lack of interest (unfortunately, their Super Bowl ad didn’t drive demand….). In a stroke of alternative advertising genius, Homer decides to single-handedly build the market for blue pants by placing an ad on his head promoting his favorite britches.
As a result of Homer’s non-traditional campaign, demand skyrockets and the company resumes blue pant production. Ah, the power of a good marketing campaign!
The beauty of the message is in it’s simplicity! I love to see grassroots movements in marketing started by the consumer. The Internet is a great vehicle for advertising, but not the only medium since we can’t be glued to our computers nor would we want to be…
Enabling the smaller, local businesses to promote and advertise without having to compete with the large powerhouses would be a great concept! Anymore if you are not part of the industrialized solution, you can’t even get into the game. Whatever happened to the local market, where good advertising was also spread by word of mouth…