Bizzaro marketing campaigns

Last Updated on Thursday, 28 July 2011 23:27 Thursday, 28 July 2011 22:50

By: fanatic

Marketing is all about innovative new ideas to get the message out. But there are some hair-brained ideas that must have made the committee cringe when presented by some marketing guru who looked like they'd just rolled out of bed. But hey, work they did and many have become catch phrases, cult legends and even surpassed the product in terms of the famousnesses thing.

US Data Corporation have compiled a list of the best 10 bizarre marketing campaigns. We hijacked the three that we remember best, so thanks to them for letting us piggy back on their hard work.

Think Old Spice and 'The Man You Could Smell Like." The Old Spice brand had become tired, most viewed it as something their grandpa used to lather on, something that sailors used when they hadn't shaven for weeks on end. Along comes Issaiah Mustafa of the Seattle Seahawks, a relative unknown and bam! Instant viral marketing as he  huskily breathes to women about Old Spice and what their man could be.

The teasers and media spin for the Blair Witch Project had half the world convinced they were watching some sick final moments of a bunch of students massacred in a forest, their camcorder found a year later. The film was made on a budget of $60,000 and thanks to the creepy breathing, off-camera screams and shaky glimpses of the camcorder being dropped, the horror movie went on to gross nearly $249 million worldwide. Now that's scary stuff.

The Career Builder monkeys became famous from Super Bowl commercials. A bunch of monkeys constantly use an employee for fun, screeching with laughter at their whoopee cushion prank, upside down sales graph and wiping their butt of the bathroom towel. Musta been fun selling that idea to the CEO of a job company.

You can find the rest of bizarre marketing campaigns here! Well worth a look. I'm sure there's a marketing idea there somewhere involving monkeys wearing Old Spice lost in a creepy forest.