Thursday, July 06, 2006

Brand Mines: A Gimmick too Far

I was just reading a story at Reuters about this Dutch advertising student who was bored with the kinds of venues where ads were being placed and set up a fake website, offering advertising on the thighs of prostitutes amongst other places.

Now I know the student was just trying to be a little cheeky, but we all know how far marketers will go to get a brand message out there. Sure, In Stores Now was supposed to be humorous, but I could just see these ideas being actually implemented by some companies, as the venues are not just the bodies of human beings, but branding animals in zoos and posting billboards out in the ocean in front of beaches.

Do any of you doubt that if research said it would work that some advertisers wouldn't take advantage of those opportunities or push them even farther?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Advertising is seemingly without boundaries. I am waiting for the day that I flush a toilet in a public restroom only to hear an ad for an 'unmentionable' back of the medicine cabinet product. If Preparation H starts advertising in this form, remember you heard it here first.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ideasfactory.com/business/marketing/know_it/feature2.html

Also read about ForheADS

MC said...

Well, I know the Japanese have a toilet that will analyze your leavings and suggest dietary changes. Of course, that same toilet beeps if you've been sitting there too long, so I doubt that would be very popular.

Anonymous said...

Didn't some guy auction off his forehead for advertising space on Ebay or something?

MC said...

I know a couple auctioned the naming rights to their first-born child to get a nest egg for their college education (no company bought however), and two male college students got through college through corporate sponsorship, so the precedent is there.

Anonymous said...

Just love anomie-atlanta first suggestion. I do recall the eBay auction that Wendy refers and that regarding naming the firt-born MC. I read somewhere that someone was offering to use laser lights to advertise on the night sky! Regarding the student you refer to in your post, I would have thought it "cheekier" to hav placed theadverts on the bottom cheeks!

MC said...

Well, if it was at a strip club, they would have been far more visible(and literally cheeky of course), though the inner thigh indicates a more intimate ad experience. I mean, you would have to be really close to read that fine print.