The Risks of Celebrity Spokespersons
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American
Tiger's Cost to Corporate Sponsors, $12 Billion
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Two University of California-Davis professors pinned the loss to shareholders from Tiger Woods' marital infidelity at $12 billion.
The researchers studied the stock market for 13 days after Woods crashed his car outside his Florida home on Nov. 27 and later confessed to infidelity. The economists compared returns for Wood's sponsors to those of the total stock market and of each sponsor's closest competitor. The study focused on nine sponsors: Accenture, American Express, AT&T, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf, Gillette, Nike, Gatorade, TLC Laser Eye Centers and Golf Digest. Shareholder value fell 2.3% ... or about $12 billion. The pattern of losses is unlikely to stem from ordinary variation of stock prices the researchers said.
A Poor Solution to the Risks of Celebrity Spokespersons
Tiger's trysts could put a huge dent in the entire "celebrity spokesperson" industry ... except for those companies that use "dead celebrities."
After all, living celebrities can be difficult. They can be demanding, hard to work with and may have actual standards about the products they endorse. No such trouble with dead celebrities. And dead celebrities won't make headlines for beating up a spouse, being adulterers, or going on the disabled list.
John Wayne pitched for Coors from beyond the grave. Several years after his death, Fred Astaire danced with a vacuum cleaner in a TV commercial. Albert Einstein is clearly the busiest corpse with at least three marketing campaigns running at all times.
Even Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was peddled for 30 pieces of silver by his family ... oops, sorry; licensed by his estate to be used as a representative for a telecommunications commercial and a wireless provider.
Frankly I find the "dead celebrity endorsements" to be reprehensible. I don't want images of people like Gandhi or Amelia Earhart to elicit responses like, "Hey, that's the person who endorses Snapple!"
So like Dr. King, I too have a dream. I have a dream that marketing grave robbing ceases. And that pure profit motive is replaced by purity of motive.
Like I said, it's just a dream.
Unnecessary Dairy Overlap
Leslie Bonk sent me the cartoon below. I'm sorry I don't know the originator. But I have noticed that the claim is true. And it also gave me the opportunity to use the words "isosceles" and "tessellate" in a single blog entry. Couldn't pass that up.
Clever, Attention Getting and Not That Easy
One of my favorite TV commercials of 09 was the American Express "Don't Take Chances" ad (above) that finds "faces" in everyday objects. The commercial explains that when things you purchased with an American Express Card are broken or stolen, American Express will have them repaired, replaced or they will credit your account. But it's the visuals that get and keep your attention.
Clever, effective and entertaining. And if you think it's easy to find "faces" in everyday objects, look around your office, home and on the street. You'll quickly learn that it's not that easy ... which makes the creative talent behind this commercial all the more impressive.
The Funniest Commercial Walmart Has Ever Done
There's nothing more to say. Just click here and laugh.
My Favorite Corvette
In an on-going effort to help take my readers' minds off of bitter winter weather, I thought I'd share with you, my favorite photo of a 1962 Corvette (above). You're welcome.
And while we're talking about Vettes, GM is recalling some 22,000 Corvettes because of potentially leaky roofs. A problem with the adhesive between the roof panel and the frame could cause them to pull apart, thus causing a leak or worse yet, the roof panel could completely detach ... which would be bad for the car behind you on the freeway. The recall includes 2005-07 Corvettes with removable roofs and 2006-07 Corvette Z06s.
And while we're on the subject, above is a photo of the interior of Dale's Vette showing the "Heads Up" display on the windshield. The display is a safety feature which enables drivers to see data without having to take their eyes of the road. Information includes speed, RPMs, water temp, lateral G forces and more. (Having a G force gage in a car seems a lot like having a breathalyzer in a bar ... in both cases there will be people who want to see how high they can get the gauge to register. I assume that's what Dale is doing while I'm being hurled from one side of the trunk to the other!)