CBS Gets Egg on Their Face
As has been widely reported, CBS has plans to launch what their copywriters have dubbed "egg-vertising." My head is throbbing just thinking about it.
At first glance, CBS gets a subtle plus or two. They're doing a couple things every marketer should. (1) They've gone to a place where people are, but advertisers are not. (2) They did something that got people talking, and got them a ton of free PR.
I'll leave the congratulations at that point. The president of CBS marketing was most pleased with the promotion's inability to be avoided.
Newspapers, magazines and Web sites are so crowded with ads for entertainment programming that CBS was ready to try something different, Mr. Schweitzer said. The best thing about the egg concept was its intrusiveness.
Empty space does not equal an open invitation to advertisers. This is a sign of (a) irresponsibility with consumers' time (b) traditional-marketer reasoning run amok in a non-traditional space. It is unabashed disrespect for the consumer. Really, who the hell wants advertising on the food they eat? Next, will they brand my steak with an A1 logo?
A few posts ago, I posed a decision we have to make as marketers. Desperation or Revolution?
This is clearly DESPERATION.