In the “There’s nothing new under the sun” department, I was amused to read last week that Roman legions invaded the streets of New York as part of a buzz marketing campaign designed to stir interest in the newly released DVD of season one of the HBO series Rome. 50 actors dressed as Roman soldiers delivered copies of the DVD to retail stores including Circuit City, Tower Records and Virgin. The effort uses a "Welcome to Rome" theme, which was included on 3-D billboards stationed at entry points to both New York and Los Angeles. Similarly themed messages were posted at bus and train stations in the two cities. What I love is that stunts like these are now classified as buzz marketing. No guys… They’re stunts. I remember Paul Ricard buying Elephant tea many years ago. At the time it was the biggest brand of tea in France, but Ricard was also the biggest liquor company in France. And back then, in the sixties, under French law liquor companies couldn’t advertise. So for a week he had a dozen elephants walking around Paris. And no, they didn’t have any ad material attached to them, but after a weeks buzz, everyone knew what they represented. It's all been done before, and will probably be done again.
What kind of tea was it? I can't remember, it was forty years ago!
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