THE BODY SHOP BUNNIES
The Body Shop were so excited by the news of a ban on the sale and import of animal tested products in the EU that they hired half a dozen white bunnies to run riot on the streets of London in March 2014. However, in order to remain within the realms of animal rights laws, the company chose to hire promotional staff from London based company LOLA instead of using real live rabbits. The marketing stunt seemed to be just as successful with humans and there were no complaints. Hopping and celebrating around London attractions such as Tower Bridge and The Shard, the white rabbits were quick to remind the public that while more than 1 million have signed The Body Shop’s pledge there has still not been a global ban on animal testing in the cosmetic industry to date. UKIP were said to be pleased with the decision to employ British workers over real rabbits as they want Europe’s best and brightest bunnies to stay in their home burrows and make them economically viable
LAST MINUTE UKIP U-TURN
Talking of UKIP (everybody is) Lastminute.com cleverly jumped on Britain’s recent obsession with the UK Independence Party by putting together this funny little clip of Nigel Farage seeming to U-turn on his usual anti-European sentiments. It is of course just existing footage of Farage chopped up in order to tell everyone to go on holiday to Europe. Cheaply and quickly put together but very effective and a good bit of fun that even Farage will be amused by.
PADDY POWER PUSHES OUT MOYES
Paddy Power loved every minute of David Moyes’ disastrous reign at the helm of Manchester United so much so that they somewhat cruelly used every opportunity to remind the public how badly it was going for him (obviously whilst advertising Paddy Power). First they erected a wax work of Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United’s most successful ever manager) in a glass box outside Old Trafford with the inscription “In Case of Emergency Break Glass. PP.”. They then positioned a ‘fan’ directly behind Moyes on his return to his old club Everton and had him dress as the Grim Reaper (also wearing a Paddy Power t-shirt) waving his scythe in Moyes direction. The unkind campaign didn’t even come to a halt when Moyes was successfully shown the door. Once the former Manchester United boss had lost his job, Paddy Power erected an 11ft bronze statue of David Moyes outside arch-rivals Liverpool’s ground bearing the satirical slogan: “David Moyes – For services to Liverpool Football Club”
The humorous campaign is surely the first time that a bookmaker has ever tried to use marketing stunts to ridicule a sports personality and potentially influence their professional position. Perhaps they got good odds on him being sacked before the end of the season?
DHL’S TROJAN MAIL (or is it?)
When DHL’s new advert called ‘Trojan Mailing’ racked up over half a million hits in its first two days, it looked as though the company had masterminded a brilliant piece of guerrilla marketing for their brand. The advert poked fun at DHL’s rivals by getting them to deliver enormous bright yellow packages with the phrase “DHL IS FASTER” printed on the side.
The video went on to pick up over five million views but a number of bloggers began to bring the authenticity of the prank into question, highlighting the lack of shipping labels, convenient camera placing and apparent inconsistencies in the weight of the boxes. It was soon revealed that DHL’s brilliant viral advertising campaign wasn’t actually a DHL advertising campaign at all. DHL spokeswoman Bea Garcia explains:
“This was not something that was initiated by DHL. The video was created by an external agency for their own internal competition. We were made aware in advance of their intention to use it for this purpose. But we were not aware it would be shared publicly.” Although she did add that the video was “a creative and humorous idea”.
FIRST KISS
With 83 million views and counting, most active Facebook or Twitter users would have seen something referring to Tatia Pillieva’s ‘First Kiss’ video when it hit Youtube in March 2014. Posing as an art-house short and supposedly capturing on camera the awkward and intimate moments before and after 20 individuals were asked to kiss a complete stranger for the first time, the video was already a huge viral success by the time the truth behind it came out. Wren Clothing, an LA based women’s clothing company, revealed that it was actually all part of a subtle marketing campaign for their new clothing range (so subtle in fact that I had completely forgotten who they were by the time I came to writing this). Wren have since won the Grand Clio advertising award for the campaign, which has already become the most viewed branded fashion video of all time.
LOLA Events is a UK wide promotional and event staffing agency providing fantastic promotional staff, event staff, hostesses and catering staff for unique parties, product launches, conferences and events.
Related articles
