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Okay, is it me, or has our bare-knuckle insult-the-comic-dog no-holds-barred culture finally seeped into the game of marketing? I mean, I’m your typical Voltairean cynic, with one eyebrow cocked whenever I hear anyone’s spiel (especially if it looks like they’re winding up to pitch me something) but in the grand old days of marketing, you were at least assured of some kind of romance when it came to sales pitches.
You know what I’m talking about, right? The tailor would comment on your husky build by saying “you must work out a lot” and the let out a few inches around the shoulder. Or the purveyor of fine scotch would tell you that his product would introduce your palate to a higher plane of enjoyment. And so on.
Not so anymore. Now it’s more like “Hey bozo, you’re fat, ugly, and you dress funny. We won’t even put that on your mom. But never fear, because we’re here to help you. For $99.99, we’ll juice up your sex appeal, make your life easier, and get you on the road to fame and fortune. It’s all right here in our packaged CD series, How to Make Enemies and Influence People. Call now and you’ll get a makeup kit, because damn, you have a face made for radio.”
Some of you may think that I’m just kidding around, but let me present some evidence to the court.
1. Came home the other day and found one of those doorknob hanger thingies on my doorknob. Actually, several of them. Very annoying. I always throw them out. The one that rankled the most was a little survey that told me that my roof needed replacing, that my landscaping was out of date, and my oak tree was out of control. And oh yes, for a small monthly fee, the landscaping company would be happy to remediate these problems. I say thanks and I’ll trim my own oak tree.
2. I submit to you Sony’s pathetic attempt at passing off corporate-created content as user-generated content, better known as AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP.com. This is slightly different from the approach in #1 above, but way more prevalent. Maybe it’s still acceptable to insult someone’s intelligence, or maybe it’s just easier for this kind of thinking to percolate up the decision chain at big corporations. Dunno.
3. Read this, shake your head, come back. This is the inadvertant kind of insult marketing that happens when you really have nothing to say to your customers and prospects and just shove any old thing out the door. Oy. Think Zen Buddhism…sometimes the silence between words has meaning.
4. Posts like this one, I suppose, in which the meta-discussion about insult marketing percolates.
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1 response so far ↓
I think the “bare-knuckle insult-the-comic-dog no-holds-barred culture” seeped into marketing a long time ago, and marketers are still going at it - without realizing it (maybe). Anytime one assumes their audience is stupid, they’re on the path to insult marketing. I haven’t seen or heard of the Sony example specifically, but I’ve heard of other situations like it where a corporate entity is too lazy to actually try to generate word of mouth, takes a shortcut, and attempts to dupe their audience. Really, really stupid.