Have you ever watched Godfather movie, the scene where a severed horse head purposely slipped under the blanket of a sleeping old man? The old man woke up, found it and the rest you already knew.One day my boss received an unusual package delivered in the morning. It was a children’s sized coffin filled with real flowers, clearly addressed to my boss with my boss’ name on it. One of the flowers was a white rose that attached to a piece of paper that said Rest In Peace Soon.com.
Well, my boss’ face turned pale, so I was told. He wondered who hate him so much and did this. But being an expert and experienced as a marketer, something crossed his mind moments later, that this could be a marketing gimmick, or new kinds of promotion.
It turned out right as I spent about an hour monitoring news throughout Internet. It was a promotion from a person who was about to launch a book about the death of advertising because of the power of word-of-mouth campaign. The sender sent 100 coffins throughout the city to selected media figures, public speakers, and professionals in marketing industry.
The senders did not say anything about the promotion. The story would have been different if he did. We realized that it’s actually a promotion from the public news, that is, after the police had taken the senders into custody. The thing that arrived were the coffin, real flowers for the dead, my boss’ name and a note “Rest in Peace Soon.com”. What would you expect? It sounds more like a terror than a promotion.
I wonder how much is the difference between the Godfather’s scene and the act of sending a children-sized coffin directly to an individual? The sender’s act caused massive anxiousness throughout the people who received the package.
Has it ever occurred to the sender’s mind that there might be people who are pregnant, shocked mothers and children (It’s a children sized coffin), or maybe even still grieving from loosing a child?
There is a thin line between stupid and creative. Creativity is definitely not stupidity. The act of unpleasant behaviors can never be categorized as creativity.
Education, as well of anything, is like a two-sided coin. If it is not digested and delivered in a right way, it can only create madness.
It was a misguided marketing. That’s all I can say.
Ivan the Freelancer
