This story from CNN reminds us of the dark side of guerilla marketing—not to mention the backside.
A throng of scantily clad men and women in front of Grand Central Terminal, were flashing underwear with "Booty Call" emblazoned on the backside.
The skivvy sighting wasn't about self-expression. It was part of an orchestrated campaign by New York Health and Racquet Club to promote a butt-building class for J. Lo wannabes.
The thing that tweaks me the most about this stunt is that it worked. Or did it?
A Web site created especially for the New York Health and Racquet Club's 'booty call' campaign featured photos that effectively re-broadcast the message at no extra cost. Some 790,000 viewers have visited www.ass-vertise.com, said Darren Paul, managing director at Night Agency, the marketing shop that oversaw the "Booty Call" stunt.
"It would have cost us half a million dollars to get that kind of publicity," said Travis.
Web traffic is a quantitative measurement that, in this article, tells us nothing more than the stunt did get attention. But did that attention translate into more memberships for the health club?
I do believe in guerilla marketing. If only because “consumers are bombarded with roughly 3,000 product messages a day." But I will argue that the only thing separating guerilla marketing from a stunt is strategy and a dose of common sense. Stunts are for folks like Evel Knievel. In any strategy or tactic, make sure that there is some steak behind the sizzle.
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