I Want to Judge This Contest
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet
Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends, news from the world of puppets and ventriloquism, bits of humor and other interesting but useless information. I post every Tuesday and Friday. For information on this puppet's background, go to http://www.dale-brown.com/.
You've Only Got One (ladies) and It's Being Marketed To
Despite complaints from consumers, the Kimberly-Clark tampon brand Kotex U is keeping a racy but effective TV campaign in Australia that would never pass muster here in the U.S.
The commercial features a woman, an animated beaver (above) and the tagline "You've only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it U." Really, you should click on the commercial ... it's really funny. Not surprisingly the ad has sparked complaints, but it's also helped Kotex gain two share points in the $250 million market.
So the company is ignoring the 150 complaints ... as it probably should. The success of the commercial makes sense when you realize the creative idea was based on sound research that found 90% of women name their private areas and that "beaver" was among the 181 names logged. On the other hand, if you ran this commercial in the U.S., complaints would surely be in the tens of thousands ... which says a lot about women in both Australia and the U.S.
A New Kind of Protection in the Bedroom
Here's a great gift idea for the holidays ... The Back-Up! It's a shotgun racking system that keeps the firearm fixed securely to the side of your bed ... "facilitating easy access for protection against home invasion."
Here's info from the Web site. "... 100 million U.S. households have shotguns for the sole purpose of home protection. Unfortunately most people keep the gun in the corner of the bedroom or beneath the bed, requiring excessive response time." Huh? I've heard of "excessive response time" in the bedroom, but it had nothing to do with shotguns.
Apparently, with The Back-Up shotgun racking system, homeowners are able to access their firearms in just a few seconds - even while in bed. Probably not a good idea if you fight a lot with your spouse.
Where Do I Sign Up to Judge This Contest?
Last week, international underwear brand Sloggi held its second annual World Most Beautiful Bottom "Show me your Sloggi" competition at Club Quartier Latin in Paris. Out of 11,200 entrants who submitted photos to Sloggi, 46 finalists from 29 countries were selected with the aid of 31 million voters and a panel of seven judges.
The winners? Brazilian 20-year-old Melanie Nunes Fronckowiak had best female bottom, while French 27-year-old Saiba Bombote was named the most beautiful male bottom. Whose idea was it for them to wear socks??
SPAM a Lot or A Lot of SPAM?
While many American companies are experiencing difficulties, SPAM is doing well. It doesn't cost a lot to eat poorly in America, and what better way to do that than with Spam.
People will settle for something resembling meat if faced with the real thing at four times the price. Dale recalls that when he was growing up his family frequently served either Spam or Hamburger Helper. As a result, all the neighborhood kids wanted to play at his house. Kids don't know if they're poor ... but they know what they like.
Elf Yourself is Back
While logic behind Office Max's Elf Yourself campaign escapes me, it has rolled out the interactive Web site for the third year in a row ... Elf Yourself (complete with bigger OfficeMax logo!). Best of all, click on the video below to see me "Elf'd."
Around this time last year, Elf Yourself had spawned over 11 million self-elfers. And this year there's a lot of new stuff to play with on the site. (By the way, it's estimated that American workers lost over a million hours of productivity last year, playing on the Elf Yourself Web site. Thank you Office Max.)
No Blog on Friday, November 28th
I'm not writing a blog on Friday ... chances are you won't be around to read it anyway. So, I'm taking the day off. No I'm not putting up a Christmas tree. I lost a significant number of family members to that barbaric tradition. Actually Dale and I will be on the road a lot in WI, IL, IN and MN during the month of December. (And because the airlines are charging so much for excess baggage now, we have to drive! Thanks so much you crappy airline people!)
Anyway we thought it may be a good idea to actually work on and rehearse our Christmas banquet show material. So that's what we'll be doing.
You, on the other hand, will probably be out Christmas shopping. I wear a size 5 tall, if you're interested. And I need sweaters ... because it's cold in the trunk of Dale's car ... thank you very much you %#&$* airline people.
