Archive for October, 2011
Let Them Eat Ice Cream
The Occupy Wall Street movement is something that has been going on since September 17th, though I’ve only heard of it recently. Surprisingly, it’s appearing to be the largest activism force that America has seen in decades. An overview of the protest’s demands and goals can be found here .
Now the movement even has a corporate sponsor: Ben and Jerry’s, that delicious ice cream brand, is supporting the movement.
Recently , Ben and Jerry’s went out to the protests in New York and began to feed them free ice cream, even without their corporate logo.
Though, this isn’t the first time they’ve been politically active. Their website seems to have an entire section devoted to their activism.
The site talks about their stance on GMO fish, and their efforts to become more environmentally friendly, with things such as their “Hydrocarbon freezer.
Thinking about all of the marketing concepts that I’ve learned in the last month, I would imagine that Ben&Jerry’s is positioning themselves as “the good guys.” It might be working, because I really want to eat their ice cream right about now.
Whoever thought of the campus cards idea is a brilliant genius.
In the first few days of classes, I picked up a free sample of the “campus cards.” They seemed fun, because they were free. Each card had an advertisement on it. Whatever. It was free! And we get discounts for all these places? Free, fun, and saving money! Not bad.
I’ve seen people playing with these cards at various get togethers, and we don’t really mind using billboards as entertainment. I think it was an effective approach for advertising, because I wasn’t aware of these places beforehand. Maybe I’ll try out one of the restaurants, and they’ll gain a big “customer lifetime value” from me!
If this card-trick proves to have strong effects, why not paste advertisements on other free gifts? We could use this tactic for all of the university-life necessities: barf-bags, toilet paper, band-aids, red solo cups, disposable plates/utensils, ear plugs, bottle openers, dartboards, and ping-pong balls.
Sounds like a great idea.