Talk about Viral Marketing. Whether coincidental or planned, there seems to be a lot of buzz about Las Vegas. I admit, I don't read much and watch TV even less. Usually I'm busy going from one crisis to the next. But Las Vegas broke through the fog. Drive-thru chapels and kitshy motels appear as background in a VW ad in in Business 2.0. I don't recall the car, which was boxy and uncomfortable looking. The headline was something about feeling carefree and young, again. On the outskirts of Las Vegas. Personally, the only reason I'd go to Las Vegas would be as a hub to fly somewhere else. Is that why Vegas is being featured in an Expedia.com commercial? And is one of the players in the poker dream Steve Wynne? Curious. Maybe it's a big co-op. Maybe it's a conspiracy. Maybe it's just coincidence. Anyway...
One of the morning news show hosts recently quoted the line, "What you do here, stays here." I wondered about the power of that line, not as a marketing tool but as far as its intrusion into the collective consciousness (or unconciousness). So, I put it into a Yahoo! search today. The first listing was about an Artic trip that has nothing to do with Vegas; the next about a woman's recovery center; and the third was a challenge from a Detroit Free Press to come up with "a line as cool as...." ("Make somethin' of it! was the best.) Poor Detroit. We think of it more along the lines of drive-by shootings than drive-thru chapels. Motor City. Whatever happened to that one?
If any of you out here in cyberland has the answer...especially about the effectiveness of the Las Vegas marketing, let me know.
-- Queen Blogalina
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Trashy Advertising
I have long debated, internally, the worth of trashy advertising. On the one hand, trashy ads do create buzz.
On the other hand, at what cost? Do they work? For whom?
Recently I heard the local talk radio station ranting about a casino billboard assaulting the commuters stuck on the Ben Franklin Bridge. I was rushing to get myself and the children off to their day, so I may be fuzzy in recollecting the headline: "Only one thing's hotter than our slots" . It focussed on a part of the female anatomy, like adouble-entendre. In my mind I saw the creative team, Beavis and Butt-head, elbowing one another with a wink and a nod from the head of the agency.
Coincidently, as luck would have it, I was called in one day to put together a great concept for some ads by a local agency getting the opportunity to do a big national ad for a chain of Atlantic City casinos owned by a prominent Real Estate Developer who hosts a hit TV show. Only one of the ads they'd conceived showed the big D, and only a small bit.
Was it because the casino corporation had recently declared bankruptcy for the second time? No, it was because they were tired of showing him. They wanted to do something new and creative and sexy. So, one of the ads had three naked women in bed, covered with dollars and the headline "Paradise Thrice". Okay, so go ahead and sue me. It wasn't my headline or my idea.
I find this approach to casino advertising somewhat amazing in that most of the people I see at casinos are retirees. Even modern mature people of this generation don't relate to an in-your-face menage et trois -- C'mon, even in the old geezers' wildest dreams. And, most of the people with the big money are Baby Boomers -- people who culturally embraced feminism. So, even if in the cult of youth they may have revolutionized the idea of "free love", how many of them want to see the flesh laid out there like some salacious smorgasborg?
On the other hand, at what cost? Do they work? For whom?
Recently I heard the local talk radio station ranting about a casino billboard assaulting the commuters stuck on the Ben Franklin Bridge. I was rushing to get myself and the children off to their day, so I may be fuzzy in recollecting the headline: "Only one thing's hotter than our slots" . It focussed on a part of the female anatomy, like adouble-entendre. In my mind I saw the creative team, Beavis and Butt-head, elbowing one another with a wink and a nod from the head of the agency.
Coincidently, as luck would have it, I was called in one day to put together a great concept for some ads by a local agency getting the opportunity to do a big national ad for a chain of Atlantic City casinos owned by a prominent Real Estate Developer who hosts a hit TV show. Only one of the ads they'd conceived showed the big D, and only a small bit.
Was it because the casino corporation had recently declared bankruptcy for the second time? No, it was because they were tired of showing him. They wanted to do something new and creative and sexy. So, one of the ads had three naked women in bed, covered with dollars and the headline "Paradise Thrice". Okay, so go ahead and sue me. It wasn't my headline or my idea.
I find this approach to casino advertising somewhat amazing in that most of the people I see at casinos are retirees. Even modern mature people of this generation don't relate to an in-your-face menage et trois -- C'mon, even in the old geezers' wildest dreams. And, most of the people with the big money are Baby Boomers -- people who culturally embraced feminism. So, even if in the cult of youth they may have revolutionized the idea of "free love", how many of them want to see the flesh laid out there like some salacious smorgasborg?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
