Inappropriately suggestive is funny when it makes sense, and is relevant to the product.

But this is Tums antacid they’re selling, not condoms or 4-hour-erection Cialis. The production values for the spots are top notch, so Grey (Worldwide) obviously spent some bucks making them. But what does phallic food and orally fixated grandmas have to do with heartburn?

Eew.

In my opinion, these spots are not funny, but creepy — and not in a good way.

What the heck was Grey thinking in creating these spots? And more importantly, how could their client, Tums/GlaxoSmithKline, have approved them? What went wrong in the process for ads like these to get made? Or could the client possibly be that naïve and blind?

- – -

Thanks to Tan Le for this guest post. Find Tan on Facebook.

Are you a spammer? I don’t care what the technical definition is – if you make it hard for people to unsubscribe from your mailings, you might be viewed as one.

Don’t require multiple clicks to unsubscribe. Don’t force someone to enter their email address into your system to unsubscribe. Be responsible and use an email tool that allows people to unsubscribe with one click at the bottom of every email.

It’s not hard to fix: every major email marketing program with a reasonable reputation handles unsubscriptions this way.

Well, here’s “The 7 Keys to Responsible Marketing in 2 Minutes,” featuring the characters you’ve grown to love (or hate) in our Responsible Marketing web shorts.

View on YouTube

There ya go—with a video that short, now everyone has time to learn about Responsible Marketing. Share away.

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But since it was, well, lumpy, and delivered via FedEx I opened it. Here’s what I found:

On one side, it says “Yes, these are real grasshoppers. They’ve even been approved by the FDA of Thailand.”

On the other side:

You’re a risk-taker, a dream-realizer. What’s left to do that you haven’t already done? Eat a grasshopper. They’re farm raised, covered in chocolate and rich in protein. So, not only will you be breaking boundaries, but you’ll be eating healthy, too.

The attached tag included the call to action:

Entrepreneurs can change the world.
Join the movement now!
www.grasshopper.com/idea

I really didn’t have the time, but I couldn’t resist jumping on this to learn what it was all about. The URL takes you to a page with the following video:

As it turns out, Grasshopper offers a nicely-packaged virtual PBX service for businesses. It’s a direct competitor to Grand Central, a similar service recently purchased by Google that’s locked down while Google integrates it into their systems.

Five things I loved about this campaign

1. The FedEx package made it feel urgent without using deceptive “Urgent – Open Immediately” language. This is message responsible.
2. Lumpy mail gets opened.
3. This is textbook example of how to do a word of mouth campaign. Chocolate covered grasshoppers? I had to share this with colleagues and with you.
4. A little mystery goes a long way. There was no sales copy—just a creative idea and a URL to learn more. Irresistible.
5. The landing page made it easy to share the video on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and and a host of other sites using an AddThis widget.

And the three things I didn’t love

1. Each tag was numbered, X of 5,000, and I understand after doing some research for this post that Grasshopper sent these packages to the people they deemed the 5,000 most influential people in America. Very flattering. But at first I thought I might need this code when I logged onto the website. Not so. This is not a limited edition keepsake, it’s a marketing piece. And by letting me know there were so many produced, it made me feel less special—at least initially.
2. The moving-text style video that was so fresh and interesting a year ago is beginning to get tired. I still like it, but it would seem every ‘movement’ has a video like this associated with it.
3. Which brings me to the whole ‘movement’ thing. I like to be inspired as much as the next entrepreneur, but I’m approaching my ‘movement’ saturation point. How many movements can one person truly join?

Still, Grasshopper has succeeded where most fail. In one fell swoop, they got my attention, held it, and they got me talking. And though I don’t need their service, If I did, I’d consider them.

So, what do you think of Grasshopper’s campaign?

Would you eat a chocolate covered grasshopper? (I won’t)

But if you’d like to try one, contact me and we’ll make it happen. I’ll post a video of you eating one here and you’ll be famous.

If you didn’t see one of their ads for their new Kentucky Grilled Chicken (the largest ad blitz in KFC history) you probably heard about the Oprah catastrophy. KFC was caught off guard when a promotion for a free two-piece meal featuring its new grilled chicken created such an overwhelming response the company ran out of chicken and customers had to be turned away.

KFC wasn’t execution responsible, but most companies would love to be overwhelmed by new customers. Especially El Pollo Loco, the 418-unit Costa Mesa, California-based chain that challenged KFC to a taste test in late April.

The company wants to pit its citrus-marinated grilled chicken against the KFC offering and has taken specific aim at KFC’s cooking process. While El Pollo Loco grills its chicken over an open flame, KFC’s chicken is cooked on a griddle—a point that the smaller contender hasn’t missed:

In KFC’s defense, if El Pollo Loco wants a taste test, all they have to do is conduct one, and by definition, grilling doesn’t require an open flame.

Amid the Oprah firestorm, KFC issued rain checks for anyone that was turned away. The rain checks were good until May 19, 2009—excluding Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009.

El Pollo Loco’s response: Ask KFC what they have against mothers, and honor KFC’s coupons on Mother’s Day.

In this David v. Goliath story, Goliath has yet to throw a swing.

It’s familiar territory for KFC—the company has failed to effectively respond to PETA’s long-running Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign.

El Pollo Loco is receiving national attention playing chicken with KFC.

If not, how should they respond?

UPDATE: QSRWeb, an online publication covering quick-service restaurant ideas and trends, covered this topic in detail, interviewing me for the Responsible Marketing take in El Polo Loco winning this round of chicken war. Check it out.

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Thanks for Matthew Mason for the KFC tip.

Well, his image and voice were resurrected to help the One Laptop Per Child Foundation “OLPCF” and it’s raised a few eyebrows (and hackles).

If you haven’t heard about the OLPCF, here’s a summary:

It’s an education project, not a laptop project. Inexpensive, durable, networked laptops are important to better education everywhere in the world, empowering children and communities, and sharing access to modern skills with every child on the planet.

And a short video:

View OLPCF Mission on YouTube

It’s an ambitious and noble cause and an idea that’s easy to support.

So Yoko Ono granted the OLPCF the rights to use John Lennon in the following ad, released on December 25:

View A message from John Lennon on YouTube

“John Lennon’s vision of a better world aligns perfectly with the mission of One Laptop per Child,” says Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the OLPC.

But his opinion isn’t shared by all. An article in Ad Age sums it up well:

Still, the ads have mostly been polarizing. Comments at the YouTube page where the ad has been posted by the foundation range from “It’s a good message, but this is too far” to “This is an abomination.” Writers on the popular website Boing Boing said, “Resurrecting the dead to shill modern products is not going to catch on,” adding, “Digitally, it’s creepy.”

Bill Boyd puts it this way:

I always view the use of images of dead celebrities—digitally enhanced or created from scratch—as irresponsible. They’re simply not here to let us know whether they’d approve.

To me, it’s partly about casting responsibility. I couldn’t see Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne or W.C. Fields saying this. But John Lennon feels like a nice fit.

But what do you think?

Comment below to share.

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It happens.

But sometimes something lands in our mailbox that’s a real head-scratcher, like this:

Leo Burnett was a titan in the ad business for six decades. His agency is responsible for Toucan Sam, The Jolly Green Giant, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, Tony the Tiger, and yes—The Marlboro Man.

Outsource Marketing opened its doors in 1997—26 years after Leo Burnett died. I turned five in 1971, so I doubt our paths ever crossed. Besides, I never could have talked him into dumping Marlboro or leaving Chicagoland.

I don’t know if Chase had bad data, if there was a database glitch or if there was a problem at the mailing house.

I do know two things:

First, direct marketing has made huge strides in recent years, but execution breakdowns like this still happen far too often.

And second, with the purchase of Washington Mutual (may they rest in peace), Chase has all our company contact info and transaction data. If they wanted to get it right, they could have.

So, what do you think went wrong with this mailing?

And what’s the oddest direct mail screw-up you’ve seen?

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Photo: Leo Burnett by Yousef Karsh/Retna – Time 100

I don’t recall signing up to receive these notifications, but I was there last season and might have provided my email address somewhere to someone.

No matter. I didn’t mind receiving the message, and I didn’t consider it spam.

As one of the top ski areas in the world and host to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler Blackcomb is a premium brand you can trust.

I figured I could unsubscribe from the notification and I’d be done. Here’s the screen I received when I did:

I assumed the section that “Option 1″ in red was the area I was supposed to use to remove myself from their mailing list. But “Option 2″ listed seven other possible lists.

This raised a number of questions for me:

I’m not sure what they are guilty of, but I do know this isn’t what I’d expect from Whistler Blackcomb. They can do better.

So, do you believe Whistler-Blackcomb’s email marketing efforts are responsible or not?

Comment below to share your thoughts.

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You know—state agencies.

Battling preconceptions to market employment office services to employers

A few years back, Outsource Marketing helped a consortium of seven U.S. states whose charter was to find effective new ways to market state one-stop services to employers. “One-stops” is the name used to describe state employment offices.

I know. Sounds like a yawner, but it wasn’t. At all.

Here’s a collage of selected images from the campaign:

+enlarge

The superhero theme was unique at the time, and it helped us battle the incorrect preconception that all state employees are disinterested paper pushers.

To the contrary, focus groups and surveys of business owners and managers in all seven states told us business reps at these state agencies were entrepreneurial, engaged, and super to have around.

The campaign results were quite good, and we documented our findings to help create a marketing template for state employment offices nationwide.

A fully integrated stop-smoking campaign

A new stop smoking campaign targeted primarily to young adults from The Colorado State Tobacco Education and Prevention partnership is particularly well done:

View this video on Vimeo

The Cigarette is Dead offers an interactive timeline where site visitors can mark the moment when tobacco became either physically, personally, politically, socially dead to them. The personal stories made up of text or video range from the moving to the mundane, and are worth a look.

This is an integrated effort and ads are seemingly everywhere and their messaging is on murals, billboards, bus shelters, huge outdoor banners, projected on highly visible buildings and spray painted on side walks:

Some might argue marketing the environment, AIDS prevention, child abuse, etc. is easy. It’s not like marketing a professional service, a product for businesses or a consumer product.

I’d argue that, while true, that’s a bit of a cop out.

Sure, this campaign is works because of its message, but it is good for a number of other reasons:

Remember, this isn’t a funded Silicon Valley startup. This mini-movement was supported by the Colorado state health department.

So, can you market as well as a state agency? Why or why not?

And have you seen other state agencies do marketing well?

Comment below to share.

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The financial crisis has everyone on edge, myself included. I lost my bank, and I’m not sure who’s next. Should I put my money in coffee cans and bury it in the backyard?

When people are on edge, sometimes they do things they normally wouldn’t do.

Same goes for businesses.

Here are a 10 things companies often do in an economic downturn, and why they are a bad idea—especially now.

1. Cut the marketing budget
   Marketing is one of the essential ingredients that makes companies go. In a less volatile economy, if you defer marketing you simply defer growth. But in a market where consumers and businesses are cutting back spending, you need to maintain—if not expand—your marketing.

   Think about it: Times are tough, so people are reducing spending. If you cut your marketing spend, think they’ll spend more?

   Nope.

   For some companies, this is the beginning of a death spiral they can’t recover from.

   Another reason to market in a poor economy: Less competition—see above.

2. Cut corners in customer service
   Actually, you need to pay even greater attention to your customers. They are under pressure too, and will make changes quickly if you give them the reason.

   For many companies, the number one source for new business is word of mouth and referral.

   Poor customer service will turn that asset into a liability when your customers quit saying nice things—and start telling the world how good you used to be.

   Your customers are the lifeblood of your company—treat them well now, and they’ll reward you later.

3. Sell customer information
   Your customer contact, demographic and transactional data has real value to other related and non-competing companies.

   Even if you have informed your customers you might do this, it’s a practice few consumers appreciate. You are betraying your customer’s trust, and destroying a permission asset that’s worth more than everything else in your company.

4. “Break through” at all costs
   You need great creative to break though the clutter. But some companies will take it too far—create advertising that’s lewder, cruder, louder or more in-your-face—and go completely off brand in the process.

   This doesn’t need to be defined further—you’ll know it when you see it.

5. Skip the strategy
   Developing quick and dirty marketing materials to pursue new business, without out any research, strategy or planning.

   You’ll have materials filled with marketing puffery instead of relevant messaging powered by consumer insights.

6. Go cheap
   Using a lowest-cost-provider for printing, design, copywriting and more. You’ll get what you pay for—if you are lucky. You’ll probably get less.

   Also, if your company sponsors worthy non-profits, don’t be so quick to cut your support. These groups are hit hardest when the economy tanks.

7. Use “situational ethics”
   By pursuing a customer that might normally be a conflict, spamming an “opt-in” list without complete certainty regarding its origins are authenticity—or worse.

   Sooner or later, this will come back to bite you.

8. Fire the CMO, Marketing Director, or Marketing Manager
   Turnover in the marketing profession is already horrendous.

   The average CMO is lucky to last two years.

   The truth is, strategic marketing takes time and the folks in these positions often aren’t given enough time to succeed.

9. Agency hop
   Marketing firms and agencies that aren’t performing don’t deserve your business. But often, they get the heave-ho for the wrong reasons.

   It takes time to build a relationship with a marketing firm. Do all you can to make sure you are treating the relationship as a partnership and doing your part to make it work.

10. Look for a silver bullet
    Sorry, but there isn’t one.

    Advertising alone won’t do it.

    Neither will PR.

    Same goes for Direct Marketing, social media or online marketing.

    Marketing is an ongoing process, not a single action—in a good economy or bad.

Do you agree or disagree with any of the mistakes on the list?

Have anything to add?

Comment below to weigh in.

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