Marketing moments

Here we take a look at the funny side of graphic design and marketing with a selection of marketing moments from history.

Fancy a chocolate?

Packs cannot afford to stay static, because markets and moods change. Nestle's successful After Eight mint chocolate was becoming tired and beginning to look dated. The current pack probably doesn't appear to have changed much. It is the fruit of 18 months of detailed research and development. Five hundred design concepts and 50 dummy packs were considered before agreeing on the new look for the 1990s.

Source: PR Smith with Jonathan Taylor, Marketing Communications, third edition

The Sinclair C5

Computer tycoon Sir Clive Sinclair was convinced his battery-powered tricycle would be the hit of 1985. It was dubbed a deathtrap, and only 3,500 were ever sold.

Source: Auto Express, 12-18 November 2003

Which comes first - the advertising or the product?

The New York Times magazine reported in 1990 how an advertising copywriter had been told to come up with some impressive labels for a putative hand cream. She invented the arresting and healthful-sounding term oxygenating moisturizers, and wrote accompanying copy with reference to 'tiny bubbles of oxygen that release moisture into your skin'. This done, the advertising was turned over to the company's research and development department, which was instructed to come up with a product that matched the copy.

Source: Bryson, Made in America

Legendary PR stunts

The most celebrated stunt was by a New Yorker called Jim Moran, who once contrived a bar-room brawl between a fairly well-known bandleader and a bystander. When the judge asked what they were fighting about, the bandleader told him it was over the recipe for Pimms Cup. Pimms had hired Mr Moran because they were having trouble establishing the brand name in the United States. The 'brawl' received so much publicity that he solved the problem with a single blow.

Source: the Independent on Sunday, 1 April 1990

Is there such a thing as negative PR?

Mr Edward Pimlott's letter to the Grantham Journal led to this apology: 'In a letter printed in our July 25 issue, Mr Pimlott apparently described himself as a pillock of the community. This was our error. Mr Pimlott described himself as a pillar of the community.'

Source: the Independent, 28 August 1997

The biggest car flop ever!

Ford reputedly threw £150 million at the 1957 Edsel, but it was hated. Customers sniggered at the suggestive shape of its grille, sales were dire and by 1959 the car was given the bullet.

Source:Auto Express, 12-18 November 2003

Eastman's three-step guide to choosing a brand name

In a patent application, George Eastman explained why he chose 'Kodak' as the name for his camera: 'First. It is Short. Second. It is not capable of mispronunciation. Third. It does not resemble anything in the art and it cannot be associated with anything in the art except the Kodak.'

Source: Collins, The Story of Kodak

Citroen's name in lights

Between 1925 and 1935, the French firm's name was emblazoned on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The 250,000 lightbulbs used to form the letters were 30 metres high.

Source: Auto Express, 12-18 November 2003

Watch those translations

When Perdue Chickens translated its slogan 'it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken' into Spanish, it came out as a slightly less macho 'it takes a sexually excited man to make a chick sensual'.

Source: Hendon, Classic Failures in Product Marketing

© Titman Firth 2005