8.9.02
Tompkins Trojan Dog
-- OR --
Ad Anesthesia
Apathy has a way of infiltrating a once-ardent attitude. What in the past was the subject of fervent rebellion now induces mere shoulder shrugs. This sentiment (or lack thereof) is quite common at The Lowbrow Lowdown. Like they say, everything's relative. You see, the more deeply engrossed in a particular topic one becomes, the less the checks and balances of outside forces apply.

Consider this scenario. New York City's Tompkins Square Park, once considered off-limits to all but junkies, hoodlums, squatters, and the occasional split pea soup-bearing Hari Krishna, has become the latest branding ground for Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

There beside the beloved and equally pungent dog run sits an enormous, glimmering white sculpture of a cartoonish canine, like some false god of the dogs. Two signs are placed on either side of this shmoo-like structure that make it official: the frozen treat firm is the proud donor of this marshmallow monstrosity. The last time I looked, neither sign had been vandalized yet. Maybe it's time for a little dog tagging.

I haven't heard too much hubbub, so my guess is that folks who frequent Tompkins Square are fairly comfortable with it. Then again, they're also comfortable with that incessant racket of bongos that floods the park.

Again, everything's relative. With each urban professional who moves to the lower east side comes the broader and more ready adoption of what just five or ten years ago would have been inconceivable -- even a glossy ad installation disguised as a lovable mutt promoting some Euro-trash flavored ice cream company that actually originated in the Bronx.

Something tells me Häagen-Dazs won't be coming out with a Boogie Down Brazil Nut Bar anytime soon.

What I'm trying to get at here is that after two years of commenting on the advertising and marketing industry and the way in which it affects us all, sometimes it feels as though the last burning embers of yesterday's fiery passion are near extinguished. A story in the July 31 edition of The Wall Street Journal (That Guy Showing Off His Hot New Phone May Be a Shill, by Suzanne Vranica) brought this feeling to light. It discusses Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd.'s recent campaign created by Omnicom Group's Fathom Communications.

Most people would be surprised by Sony's strategy, but The Lowbrow Lowdown Lackeys didn't raise an eyebrow. To make it brief, the company has hired actors to play tourists on the streets of Manhattan and Seattle, asking pedestrians to snap their photos with a fab T68i digital camera/phone. Sony is also "training 'leaners' - 60 actresses and female models with extensive training in the phone's features who will frequent trendy lounges and bars without telling the establishments what they're up to," according to the article. Of course, unless asked outright, they won't let on to the unwitting recipients of their underhanded sales pitches that they're being paid either.

I'll admit it. This sort of thing makes my blood boil, so it's curious that after reading the story I simply wasn't fazed by the fact that people will be duped by Sony or that its director of marketing communications, Jon Maron, believes these covert commercial tactics to be, "very natural". Yeah -- so are botox parties and green ketchup.

After focusing on these sorts of viral and peer-to-peer marketing campaigns and their potential impact on society in my research/commentary paper, Sales Pitch Society (which has been downloaded over 2,000 times), it's difficult to get riled up by them.

This is not a good thing. If anything, we need to heighten our concern. As these sorts of sly sales strategies become more rampantly practiced by big name advertisers, there's no doubt that they will affect negatively the way people relate to one another. Especially in this age of supposed corporate transparency, this topic deserves to be pondered gravely by those inside and outside of the advertising world. As someone who's convinced of the magnitude of this issue enough so that I wrote a 35 page paper on it, even I can attest to the fact that it's easy to become numb to the use of people as ad placements.

Just think about the phrase "people as ad placements." People are not billboards or TV commercial breaks or neon signs in bar windows. People are flesh and soul, exuding independent ideas and spirit, not empty vessels ready to be crammed with corporate messages. The advertising world is forgetting this.

Are you? Find out: take The Sales Pitch Society Challenge.