Splicetoday

Consume
Oct 23, 2008, 01:10PM

One Step Too Far

In case you didn't know, marketers can be absolutely shameless in their attempts to ingratiate their product to your subconscious. Sometimes with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Here are a few specific examples.

Sigh:

Consider this article written by two professors of marketing at UNC's business school published in the Journal Report yesterday. It discusses how to get through to consumers who increasingly try to tune out advertising messages. I think that some of these practices are gross; some of them are right out of Gotcha Capitalism. Dr. Balasubramanian and Dr. Bhardwaj suggest:

Consider a series of billboards along a busy interstate proclaiming the approach of a business, but not really saying what the business does. To find out what the business is all about, travelers have to take an exit off the highway. While some may be disappointed with what they find and may not plan a second visit, there are always millions more of the uninitiated coming down the highway. This technique has been used to good effect by South of the Border, a Mexican-themed shopping and food cluster on I-95 near the border of the Carolinas.

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