Publicity Stunts!

It is amazing, crazy, and not to mention impressive, how creative companies will get in order to promote their brands. It takes a lot of skills to come up with some of the ideas that the companies did that were successful.  I feel that the most important aspect to keep in mind when trying to pull a publicity stunt is to definitely remember the theme of the brand you are trying to promote.  The character of your business is best highlighted by the type of publicity stunt attributed to your advertising campaign.

 First of all, I had no idea that these tactics have been used in this industry for so long.  The Tour de France has been one of the most prestigious events coordinated for so long, and it is just very amusing to know that it started off as a publicity stunt.  I think that the stunts that I liked the best were the Taco Bell's April Fools' Day joke because it was very original and funny.  People were very upset about what was happening, as well as it fit the persona of Taco Bells brands.  I feel that when Burger King tried to pull off the same effect it was very cheap because the April Fool's act has already been used by a fast food place, and it was not as successful, nor did it really fit into the company's humor at the time. Plus the fact that I could not believe people really went to Burger King and got upset about not being able to order the left handed burger.  I mean, really? How stupid could you possibly be to believe this advertisement was true? I think also that the Golden Palace stunt was very creative, and it also fit into their persona as well.  An online poker company I'm sure has a lot of humor incorporated into what they represent, which is fun and entertainment and games.  I also cannot believe that Oregon really changed one of their town's names to Halfway, Oregon.  The fact that they tried to be badmouthing the company after they made a good amount of their promises to them is silly, and the town should be grateful that their town was even recognized now.  I mean it's Oregon, who else would even know that town existed if Half.com didn't come in and step up their game!?

Secondly, for the publicity stunts that were not so successful, it seemed that their failure was just a result of poor planning.  The Snapple idea was very creative and would have gotten a lot of attention, but did they really think the popsicle wouldn't melt in an 80 degree New York climate? They should have just made a plastic popsicle and handed out some free samples, because what would have even been the outcome of a real popsicle if they knew it was going to eventually melt all over the place.  No one would benefit from this, nor be happy about getting scummed on by a giant popsicle in the middle of the summer... hello bees?!? They should have learned better from the chocolate stunt failure mentioned in the beginning of this article.  Lastly, I just wanted to comment on the Pontiac incident.  The company came up with a great idea for promoting their cars, but it was a very half-way planned mistake.  Everybody knows that Oprah's show is always going to entail her giving away something great for free. It is about her, the show for sake is called Oprah! So why would Pontiac try and establish credibility for this act on this show? They should have chosen another show that was not directed so much toward one person.  Also, the only part of their stunt were they could have claimed some dominance for their brand, they messed it up because the cars weren't even on the market yet.  This could have been a great idea if it was done differently.