Over the weekend I picked up a postcard at a pizza place for the Tux with Chucks Prom, hosted by Urban Outfitters, Mischieve Hornitos, PBR, death + taxes magazine, and, of course, Converse.
The promo copy states, “Buy a pair Chucks at Urban Outfitters and get two tickets to the Tux With Chucks Prom, an opportunity to relive the most awkwardly awesome night of your life.”
(Please note that I am quoting the flyer exactly as it's written, and I don’t think anyone proofread it.)
Two things about this postcard/promotion immediately struck me as odd:
- The couple in the “awkward prom picture” looks kind of cool. If I had gone to my prom, I totally would have worn that dress.
- They didn't list a url! WTF?
The event is happening on Friday night at Studio B in Brooklyn – not too far from my regular hangout. I was planning to spy on it and try to gauge the effectiveness of the entirely offline promotion, and that would still be true if I hadn’t just received an email about it from myopenbar.com, guaranteeing free entry and free Hornitos Tequila and PBR from 8 PM on. Yup, you don’t actually have to buy Chucks from Urban to get in – just RSVP.
It gets weirder.
The post on myopenbar.com does not mention Urban Outfitters’ or Converse’s sponsorship of the event and instead says it’s presented by Death + Taxes Magazine. Marketing FAIL much? What will be the reaction of the schmuck who picked up this postcard, bought Cons at UO, and, after feeling ever-so-slightly exclusive about this party, realizes he could have just RSVPed to some magazine he’d never heard of for access? Probably not one of brand loyalty – for Converse or for Urban Outfitters.
It's a shame that big brands Converse and UO couldn't do a better job to leverage themselves with such a simple promotion. They could have done some amazing webwork to engage their audience with easy-to-do UGC: submit your terrible prom story, upload your crappy prom photo, make a request and dedication to be played at the party – SOMETHING!
Oh well.
One more diss and I'm done.
The copy from myopenbar.com is much more interesting than the copy from Urban Outfitters:
Free tequila, free PBR and performances from Crocodiles and Japanese Motors, which were clearly booked by someone with much better taste than the principal. RSVP to tuxwithchucks@dt-mag.com.
Perusing my "multicultural marketing" google alerts this morning, I headed over to the Racialicious blog to check out a story about the power of social media to end racism, and found a picture of this:
and this:
Well, it wasn't so much a post as it was a start to a long discussion about racial stereotyping. I decided to find out where the campaign came from and who exactly it is targeting before I got on my soapbox about it. After combing several more blog posts (and varied discussions in their comments), I found the simple brief Becks Plastilin gave Scholz+Friends Hamburg for the project: Communicate to young and modern parents (in Europe and Germany) that
Becks Modelling Clay is a product that supports your child's creativity.
There are a number of reasons to be offended by these print ads, but, as a lot of virtual ink has been spilled to describe the lack of gender neutrality in the backgrounds, the questionable positioning of the arm of the stuffed fox in the KKK add, the sexual ambiguity of the black person, and whether the man in the turban is playing the air guitar while the man with peyos is dancing, I'm going to limit my comment to this: I like the message.
Let the kids build a better world.
Kids are creative — all of 'em. Until taught otherwise, they are neither racist nor homophobic nor anti-semetic. They won't battle that until later, but their parents have to think about it now. If only it took edgy advertising to get parents to buy clay for their kids while considering the values they want to teach them, that'd be great! These print ads were made by adults for adults, and they've generated quite a buzz among adults which may make them successful. The reality is that kids should continue being creative (hopefully in multi-cultural settings), while the adults should take time to consider their approach to the upsetting stuff that they'll have to discuss with their kids in the future. If both these things happen, the kids will build a better world, and they will have their parents to thank for it.
GoodGuide, the free and innovative online tool which rates the healthfulness, environmental impact, and social performance of any given personal or household product has finally gone mobile. Educated, but impromptu buying decisions are now possible for greenies. Not only have they released an iPhone application, they are also offering text message service for those too poor or too sustainable to give up our 2-year-old cell phones! GO GOODGUIDE! YAY!
Finally, Spaceballs on YouTube! Google has made a deal with MGM to post full-length movies and television shows on YouTube. This is a smart move, as relative newcomer Hulu continues to gain popularity on the web. Thank goodness the media industry is catching on and providing content online. Aside from combating piracy, it’s the smart thing to do as people continue to move from the television to the laptop for entertainment.
PassiveAggressiveNotes.com is a aggregative blog that serves as a forum for those taunted by nagging people. Readers can share pictures of notes written to them or of notes they find. It’s kind of like Found Magazine, but with an emphasis on "painfully polite and hilariously hostile writings."
