From the pages of middle America comes this innovative use of product placement. Seems Cory didn’t like mom’s take on American Idol. So, he introduced her to Mr. West Coast Chopper - keychain edition. Normally with a story like this, the quote from Cory’s mom alone would be worth the price of admission: “... her son did not intend to hurt her, but rather that he meant to ‘mess’ her hair.”But, upon further review, there’s something better here. Cory may have stumbled onto a HUGE opportunity for consumer generated product placement in a new channel: the abuse market. (And that’s CGPP for acronym freaks out there). Beat yer mom, then, if you’re lucky, the DA displays the weapon of choice for the world to see. Provided you thought to talk to a few marketing directors of major brands ahead of time, and maybe even cut a deal, they get free PR while you get a little scratch. Priceless. Sales of WCC keychains are probably through the roof by now.
But, lest anyone repeat the mistake of the Tahoe CGC debacle, make sure you use a branded product when you bring the pain, otherwise, it’s a wasted opportunity. Why grab a stick when a can of Mobil® 5w-30 would be higher profile?
Tags: advertising, brands, viral
5 comments:
You are so sickly hilarious.
Well, at least it's an example of true market segmentation.
What's scary is that there are wackos out there who probably think this is a good idea.
If there's really no such thing as bad press, as so many have proven lately, then it makes sense that there might be no such thing as bad product placement. I think this mentality is one reason there are laws prohibiting convicted criminals from profiting from their crimes. Given the justice system, people might sense value and start evaluating crimes on a cost-of-doing-business basis. Sometimes the only difference between satirical humor and extrapolation to inevitability is time. Uh-oh. Now I've confused myself.
everysandwich, I humbly disagree... there IS such a thing as bad press and when it's bad, it's REALLY bad. (Btw, thanks for stopping by on my blog).
Heyuz, Andrea. I'm glad I found your blog. I wasn't clear in my post since I was really just extrapolating to a potential future generality based on trends over a few decades. Namely that people could one day seriously consider endorsement for bad behavior.( To illustrate the trend I'm probably repeating myself here by noting that what almost destroyed Rob Lowe helped "make" Paris Hilton.) But I think people caught in bad press often tend to make it worse by underestimating the general willingness to forgive. Cynthia McKinney's response to punching a cop: wrong approach. Bill O'Reilly's response to being outed as confused between a loofah and falafel while talking dirty: right response. Ken Lay on being a jackass: as Huey Lewis sang, sometimes bad is bad.
Andrea - I would agree and think there is a fine line to what bad press can do for you vs. to you.
But I think we need to also define 'Bad’ in terms of what 'is' is. Which leads me to every’s point...
every - There are laws prohibiting directly profiting from a crime, but I believe that’s only violent crime, (if I’m not mistaken). As it should be.
But absent murder/manslaughter, (read: OJ or Robert Blake, etc.), and we indirectly reward those who run afoul of the law.
Which is a maddening yet interesting contradiction. Even the appearance of being a bad boy is enough to boost your popularity and give your Q rating a jump without doing any real serious crime:
- Micky Rourke getting thrown out of a bar - drunk - again. Bad boy rep cemented.
- Sean Penn punches a photographer. Bam. Settled out of court I believe.
Moving farther up the celebrity crime ladder:
- Russell Crowe throws a phone. Bam. Opening weekend box office cemented.
- Winona Rider steals some clothes. Hey, it’s all good thought right? Nobody died, and so we send her on her whacky way and laugh. And we still love her. (Whatta ya expect when Timothy Leary was your godfather.)
- Martha Stewart is CONVICTED, still remains in denial about it, and yet her faithful flock surround her.
- Rush Limbaugh? Painkiller freak. Yet, like Martha, his flock surrounds him. Albeit, it probably takes a few more of his flock to surround him than it does her.
Which leads me to think the cult of personality is so strong, that unless you have direct video of your favorite star or athlete killing someone, you can’t believe what you read or hear.
Reminds me of something Willie Nelson once said. His wife walked in on him and another woman. Immediately he said: “Are you gonna believe what your eyes see or what I tell ya?“
Well, in the case of Martha, Martha, Martha - Rush and Michael Jackson, you’d think these three walked on water.
I’m immune to fan-frenzy though. Oj is my test case. Growing up as an Buffalo Bills fan, natch, I'm from Buffalo, there was no bigger sports hero on my team like OJ, especially having seen him play.
But when I saw the chase, etc. I was in major shock. And as more info came out about time and place not adding up, I just knew it wasn’t like he said. Then the crime photos and testimony. And you knew.
Maybe someone else picked up on this , but there was one thing above all else though that gave it away for me that OJ did it. As I was watching the verdict read live, I saw Robert Shapiro’s reaction. Total surprise, shock and awe, as in, “How could they let OJ off?“. At the same instant, OJ is relieved, as in, guilty-guy-just-got-away-with-one relieved.
But from my perspective, there was never disbelief as in ‘Oh, OJ could never have done that.’
Watch enough CNN and you get used to seeing people do stuff they weren’t supposed to ever do. When they interview the neighbor of the serial killer right? What’s the first thing they always say: ‘He - was - such - a - nice - guy!‘
In my case with OJ, the shock coming not from denial, but from knowing what he once meant to me, and now, I could never look at him and think he was innocent. Now he's trying out for some game show overseas or something.
Maybe him and Jackson can co-host.
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