Epic Fail Friday: How NOT to Advertise

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This week we have two glowing epic fails to discuss and I am so excited to share them with you! I’m going to keep them fairly short because this week has been C.R.A.Z.Y, but there are two pretty important lessons to be learned here, so take note, friends!

First, congratulations on your move to a new residence! How exciting for you! I’ve moved plenty in the past several years and we are on the eve of yet another move. So I can empathize with you – moving trucks are hecka expensive and if you’re relocating just a short distance away it can be oh-so-tempting to just stuff all of your possessions into that tiny little car of yours and haul it yourself. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Ted saw a sheepish little baby of a vehicle driving down Beechmont Avenue this week with a stove on the top of the car, and a sofa and recliner dangling precariously out of the trunk. I suppose they must have been tied down somehow but rest assured all three items were likely bigger than the car itself and I’m nearly certain that nobody was driving anywhere near that vehicle if they could help it for fear of a wayward stove toppling over onto their vehicle. How NOT to move, lesson #1. (But what a funny sight it was!)

Epic Fail #2 is brought to you by a daycare center in desperate need of some appropriate advertising and a marking director, pronto! Thursday night we went for dinner at the home of our dear friends Nick & Linda. They live out in the Ohio countryside, about a 45 minute drive from our place. They made us delicious steaks and vegetables on the grill – it was totally fabulous! Anyhow, on the way there we drove through the little hood of Bethel. On the side of the road we saw someone dressed up as a clown, holding a sign advertising a daycare center. Let’s discuss the many things wrong with this picture, shall we? First, why on earth would you think it’s a good idea to advertise something as important as childcare with a thing that most children and adults are terrified of? Secondly, if you simply must utilize the clown in your marketing (but please don’t!), aim to select a cheerful, welcoming, smiles and rainbows and kittens clown, not a sketchy clown impostor with truly frightening black face makeup, an ugly scowl that screams “I’m a serial killer” and at the very least give the dude a more festive noise-maker than the dreary one that squeaks out an eerie and deflated lame honking sound that sends children running in the opposite direction and leaves grown adults laughing so hard that they have to pull over because they can no longer safely continue their drive. It was brilliancy at its finest! Ted and I are still laughing just thinking about it.

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