Have you seen the ads NBC banned from the Super Bowl?

If you haven't seen them, you really owe it to yourself to take a peek ...

... guys only ...

The Banned Ads

Richard Dennis

Guys only??? Well, this very female woman saw them and was absolutely disgusted with their attempt to denigrate the female form in such a manner. Sexy? I think not...but then I'm not sporting a masculine attitude to female exploitation either.

I notice they didn't show men performing such disgusting displays of sexual innuendo and so forth. Would I like to see men instead? No! The human body should not be used for pornographic exploitation...even if they call it advertising. It's hogwash!

Sandi Bowman

[RgrPett]

The latest PETA ad is based on the theory that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Being a non-profit organization PETA has limited funds for advertising. So every couple years they create a totally outrageous ad, submit it to various media (NBC in this case) knowing full well that the ad is too controversial to run.

But because the ad is "banned" the news media (always looking for sex and controversy) takes the bait. The ad gets played and discussed as "news" on more outlets more times ... without PETA spending a single dime on air time and ad space.

They did this a few years ago with their "Got Cancer?" ad based on the Got Milk ad. And before that they tried to get the city of Fishkill, NY to change its name because the name promoted the killing of fish.

In the end they get a couple days worth of free air time on multiple outlets at various times throughout the day vs. a very expensive one-shot deal to a limited audience watching the Super Bowl.

During the last 24 hours I've seen the current "Veggie" ad run and/or discussed on FOX News Channel, Imus In The Morning, Drudge Report and CBS Radio.

Roger

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Richard Dennis

If you haven't seen them, you really owe it to yourself to take a peek ...

... guys only ...

The Banned Ads

Richard Dennis

Thanks Richard for sharing these...

As Roger pointed out, the reason why these are brilliant is because this is almost-free marketing by PETA. They are masters at using controversy to get many millions of dollars worth of free publicity!

They do it by being controversial. If some people didn't object to it, it wouldn't be controversial!

Not everyone likes controversial marketing, but there's no doubt it works... It's used by some pop stars (e.g. Madonna, Britney Spears) and other media stars (e.g. David Blaine) and even political commentators (e.g. Ann Coulter) all the time too, who have used free publicity from controversy to make millions for themselves...

I've mentioned PETA's publicity stunts before (though the links in that post have been lost)... http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10143

Here are more links to PETA's publicity stunts... http://www.peta.org/mc/inthenews/

(And you can find more links on the left side of that page...)

The point is, agree with it or not, they're certainly getting their message out. And they're able to make every $1 they spend do the work of $100 or $1,000 of advertising, through free publicity...

- Dien

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

The point is, agree with it or not, they're certainly getting their message out. And they're able to make every $1 they spend do the work of $100 or $1,000 of advertising, through free publicity...

To followup...

What kind of stories does the media cover?

Richard Dennis posted about this in a *GREAT* post many eons ago...

(Hey, I remember these posts, even years later!)

Richard once wrote...

In researching press releases a few months ago, I came across a poll of media editors. The question was, what types of stories do they most want?

Their subjects:

1. human interest (stories that choke you up or make you smile)
2. personal relationships under pressure
3. bulletted tip lists
4. unique stuff: achievements or ideas, websites or products
5. stories with political or social impact
6. humor, wisdom, fun, tragedy
7. holiday/event stories

The reason they want these types of stories is, that’s what appeals to their readers. If you’re writing a press release, it’s easier to get it published if it focuses on one of these subjects. And if you carry the idea of the “advertorial” to its logical conclusion, then your ad copy would be best to include human interest stuff or … Tell a story.

(Richard's original post is here ... http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=919 . Read it... It's a "keeper"!)

The PETA story is certainly "unique"! It's also got a dose of "humor"... And it's an "event" story, because it "piggybacks" on one of the biggest events of the moment... the Super Bowl!

- Dien