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AN
OPEN LETTER TO ADVERTISERS
Kristin Fiore
No Other Avenue, #1
Los Angeles, CA 90666
(323) 867-5309
August 6, 1999
Dear Sir, Madam or Computer-Generated /
Costumed Mascot,
You are the architects and designers of
our modern urban landscape. Square yard
by square yard, jingle byjingle, you infiltrate
every corner of our public space in an ever-expanding
onslaught of designer shoes, athlete-endorsed
sodas and gold-plated sunglasses.
Who has better utilized the introduction
of paved roads (billboards), electricity
(neon signs, revolving billboards), mass
transit (subway and bus ads), radio &
television (commercials and strategic product
placement) and planes (flying banners)?
True to the environmentalist's credo, you
make the most of our available resources,
covering wasteful building fronts with Gap
and Apple computer portraits (there's a
tribute to thinking different!), 23-story
Virgin Shaglantic banners (brilliantly made
of mesh, so the toil-and-fax workers in
the obscured office can still see out their
windows) and movie ads that smother entire
buses. Even venues like the Great Western
Forum, Staples Center, Arrowhead Pond and
Blockbuster Pavilion tote your monikers.
Add mass-mailings, e-mails, evening phone
pitches, school vending machines, company-sponsored
school lunches and text books, and there's
no one you can't reach. No avenue unexplored.
Almost. See, you seem to have missed an
important medium that could be the most
effective and subliminal yet...ME!! and
other humanoids.
As a young, financially-challenged but
well-endowed female, I would like to offer
my services and help pioneer this new wave
of marketing: Advertise on my chest!! That's
right, I'm for hire. Here's what I (and
other walking billboards) can do for you:
As a mobile ad, I can go where your demographic
is and change my message accordingly. New
audience? New tee shirt!! At 5'2" and
25 years old, I'm an ideal target for teenage
girls, whose insecurities and body-obsessions
make them particularly easy targets. Fashion,
beauty and plastic surgery ads would be
ideal to parade in front of junior high
schools at lunch time. Men will buy pretty
much anything that is stretched across a
large chest (excluding groups in San Francisco,
West Hollywood, etc.). A stroll by Hollywood
High with only a Stridex cap on each nipple?
10,000 boxes of acne cream SOLD!! (gives
a new ring to the term "media whore,"
don't it?)
As a young writer, I am a symbol of anti-corporate
angst and non-conformity. I can give your
product a hip edge you just can't get from
a TV ad. This will bring in a whole new
demographic of youngsters who think that
buying your product will be an act of rebellion!!
(Add purple-dyed hair and fake piercings?
Cah-ching!$!$).
You'll have the girlies, the meatheads
AND the gen-x misfits. You can't go wrong!!
Think of the slogan possibilities:
Bust a Move! In new hip-hop Reeboks.
Keep Abreast of Business with E-commerce
Software.
Don't Be A Boob!! Drink Coke.
I've worked out a scale of payment based
on several factors, though everything below
is negotiable. Additional charges may apply
if I'm truly appalled by your product.
Basic Service Costs
basic tee shirt ad ... $20 / hour
revealing shirt, cold or rainy day, go braless
... extra $2 / hour
dangerous areas, actual contact with customers
... extra $3 / hour
Special Services
Change my name to your company's slogan!
... $800 / week
Tattoo your logo on my body (prices subject
to logo size, placement. All tattoos subject
to availability of desired body part)
Gallup polls show that folks just can't
oogle each other enough -- and have even
determined that certain consumer groups
prefer particular body parts! Why settle
for those uniform rectangles on the boulevard
that cost thousands per week when humans
come so cheap? Don't sit there and think
about it -- buy now, because prime tattoo
space and big-buy weeks will go soon! I've
already got requests for Labor Day.
The human body is the final frontier. Claim
it before your competitor does!!
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
[insert what you'd like to call me here]
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