Friday 30 October 2009

The WTF Marketing Idea For The Day

I was randomly trawling the internet like I always do, and stumbled across this
[link to original].



I know. It's in German. The description on the vid reads:
Jung von Matt/Neckar lässt für Eichborn, den Verlag mit der Fliege, 200 mit Bannern bestückte Fliegen auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse starten.

Now, my German is a little rusty (read: non-existent), but I know enough about languages, translation services and advertising to know that this is what happened:
  1. Random-goddamn-pseudo-effin'-intellectual publishing house wants to have a hoity-toity, attention-grabbing launch.
  2. Said goddamn publishing house approaches a smart-alec ad agency known for their 'edgy' ideas.
  3. Among other things said during the briefing, someone accidentally uses the phrase 'We want to get off to a flying start'.
  4. Head-up-their-arse copywriter/planner/ideator latches on to that line, and adopts it as their brief.
  5. Said individual thinks, "Hmm, what would be a really cool way of showing something got off to a flying start?"
Result: This ridiculous excuse for an idea.

What surprises me most is the fact that journos are happily going about snapping pics of the little things flying around. Now I'm not your biggest environmentalist/animal lover/save-the-planet-love-all-its-creatures hippie. But did no one have a problem with this?

I'm going to sign off with the best reaction I've seen yet to this video. Cheers to illustriouschin:
"yeah combining the two most annoying things in the universe, buzzing flies and advertisements. all they need now is to glue a screaming baby and a barking dog to it and they will have the ULTIMATE ANNOYANCE. the only bad part is that it drives people to kill instead of buying their shitty product, not like there is a difference though."

7 member protest rally:

fishbowl said...

Ah yes.. just saw this 2.

jhayu said...

@ fishy.
Yeah. It's just evil.

Preeti said...

Don't see anyone annoyed though...on the contrary they seem to be laughing and kinda liking it.
it's icky...but maybe they are robotic flies???

Che said...

Because no ones give a fly-ing fuck :P

WV: cantio

jhayu said...

@ The Maiden.
No, they're not. I read up more on it. It appears the banners were specifically designed to be heavy, so that the flies would not be able to get too high, and have to keep landing. On people.
That makes it all better, see? They thought it through also.

@ Maniak.
Dude, you're jokes are getting more and more like Yo's every passing day.

Preeti said...

Aah...that's not good. Hmmn. Sad state of affairs.

Deepali said...

This is insane. The lengths people would go through...

The 'best reaction' sums it up pretty well.

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