It’s Bottoms Up Over Zoo Doo

There aren’t many products that can be successfully marketed with a picture of an elephant’s fanny. But DRK Inc., a Boston-based advertising agency, may have found one.

The agency recently created a series of poster ads for Zoo Doo Compost Co. of Memphis, Tenn., which makes fertilizer from zoo animal excrement.

Zoo Doo recycles manure from 13 U.S. zoos and has sales in the “low six figures,” according to Pierce Ledbetter, DRK’s founder and president.

Among DRK’s preliminary suggestions for pitching the product were a picture of the backside of a rhinoceros with the question, “Ever wonder why jungles are so lush?” and a picture of the product, which comes in containers that resemble pints of ice cream, with the words “The Number Two Best-Seller.”

Ledbetter said reaction to the posters, which are being displayed in stores where Zoo Doo is sold, has been extremely positive.

Calls to the company’s toll-free number, 1-800-ILUVDOO, which is printed at the bottom of posters, have more than doubled since DRK’s signs and posters hit stores last week, Ledbetter said.

“Some people are calling just wanting to buy the posters themselves,” he said.

A pint-sized container of Zoo Doo retails for $4.95.