Do Over-the-Transom Ideas Work?
Jay Burton is a frustrated adman wanna-be. When neither Hyundai of America nor its ad agency showed interest in a slogan that the 72-year-old Los Angeles resident concocted for the Korean car maker, he mailed this motto directly to the chairman of Hyundai: Hyundai--The Best Car From Myundai to Sundai.
Burton is still awaiting a reply. Of course, the retired comedy writer is also waiting to hear a good word from Maytag, AT&T; and Ford--to name just a few advertisers he has courted. Like thousands of ad groupies, Burton sends his unsolicited ideas to advertisers by the dozen. And, like everyone else, about all he ever gets back are form thank-you notes.
“If everyone said the ads were no damn good, I’d say the heck with it,” said Burton, who once wrote one-liners for Bob Hope and Milton Berle. “But people tell me they’re not bad.”
Most major American manufacturers receive unsolicited advertising ideas daily. Some big firms such as Pepsi get more than 100 each month. Eveready’s rambling bunny--along with the battery company--receives up to 100 weekly.
But advertisers say consumers are wasting their time. In most cases, the ads are too far afield from the marketing strategies devised by high-paid executives. And fearing potential lawsuits from consumers who claim that the companies ripped off their creations, the ideas are usually sent to corporate legal departments or mailed back--unread.
“There’s a million-to-one shot that an ad idea coming from the outside is pertinent to the product,” said Peter Angelos, creative director at the agency Foote, Cone & Belding/San Francisco. “Even if it is good, legal ramifications won’t allow us to use it.”
At Hyundai, where Burton sent one of his favorite ideas, the rules are firm. “Our policy is, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ ” spokesman Bill Wolf said. “It’s a matter of liability.”
Nearly every week, some excited consumer writes of this discovery: Pepsi spelled backwards spells Is Pep, said Pepsi-Cola spokesman Andrew Giangola. But Pepsi officials say the slogan is not in the cards.
Pepsi also receives hundreds of photographs every year from consumers whose pet dogs, horses or cows are pictured guzzling Pepsi. All hope that their pets will be featured in Pepsi ads. One dog owner sent a cassette to Pepsi trying to prove that his dog barked “Pepsi.” It didn’t.
Nike’s ad department gets “thousands of the weirdest, wackiest letters you can imagine,” said Scott Bedbury, director of advertsing. One Bronx, N.J., resident wrote Nike: “The sport that Bo don’t know is bowling.” The letter writer proposed a TV commercial that would pit Nike spokesman Bo Jackson in a bowling match against himself.
For its “Just Do It” ad campaign, Nike received a letter from a 315-pound man in Amarillo, Tex., who proposed to lose 115 pounds in 12 months. “How about your company furnishing the shoes and other equipment I will need, and perhaps build some advertising around my efforts?”
Several years ago, when the dancing raisins were the rage, the California Raisin Advisory Board even received ad suggestions scribbled on entry blanks for a “Name the Raisins” contest. But for legal reasons, none of the ideas were used, ad director Todd Norgaard said.
Sometimes advertisers ask for ad ideas--and often live to regret it. For its 501 jeans campaign, Levi’s aired a toll-free number asking consumers to explain what unusual things they do in their jeans. Over two years, Levi’s has received 1.6 million phone calls and letters.
But in the ad world, like everywhere else, it’s not always what you know, but who you know.
It wasn’t an ad executive who devised the campaign for Disneyland that features athletes such as Joe Montana filmed after Super Bowl wins exclaiming, “I’m going to Disneyland.”
That idea was the brainchild of Jane Eisner, the wife of Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. She was talking in 1986 with the pilots of the Voyager aircraft that set a record as the longest flight ever without a stop. She asked what the pilots planned as their next feat. “Well, I guess we’ll go to Disneyland,” one replied. Presto: A campaign took flight.
Consumers still flood Disney with ideas for that campaign, said Michael McPhillips, manager of advertising. Some aren’t half bad. Several years ago, one consumer suggested a TV spot featuring Humphrey the famous humpback whale that beached itself in the Sacramento River. In the ad, as devised by the consumer, Humphrey was to be asked why he swam so far in the wrong direction. With the help of Disney magic, Humphrey was to mutter, “I’m going to Disneyland.”
Briefly
The Newport Beach agency Galusha & Associates has won the ad business for audio visual client Inline Inc. . . . Final selection of an agency for the $16-million anti-smoking campaign for the California Department of Health Services is expected on Friday. . . . The Home Club of Fullerton also expects to name an agency for its $12-million ad business by Friday. . . . In a publicity stunt to call attention to its new logo design, Pepsi has paid an undisclosed sum to rejigger the Hollywood Sign today to look like its new logo. . . . After consolidation, the Santa Monica agency Good Guise Advertising has renamed itself Cutler Enterprises. . . . The Los Angeles agency Muse Cordero Chen has formed a joint venture agreement on ad projects with China Globe Advertising, the largest agency in the People’s Republic of China. . . . The most deceptive advertising of 1991 will be selected and panned today by the Washington-based consumer lobby Center for Science in the Public Interest.
