I was reading how Payless Shoes opened up a pop-up store in 2018 in a fancy boutique. They staffed it with models, sold 25 dollar shoes for up to $640, and won rave reviews for their “Palessi” brand. I think they all closed, but it’s still a great story.
Any other similar ones that you like?
Wendy’s snarky Twitter campaign seems to have ended, but a few years ago their tweets about the competition were hilarious.
I hadn’t seen that. Pretty ballsy for a fast food company. (You probably shouldn’t make fun of adoption. Wendy’s has among the worst environmental records, but few know that. What can you mock? Baconators? Recycling burger into chili? Dunno. I’d go for those weird Frosty things.)
If I can go back over a hundred years…
In 1907, back when marketing national brands was new, Kelloggs came up with a promotion where a woman would get a free box of corn flakes for winking at her grocer.
Quite salacious for the times! (Imagine the modern equivalent: flash your boobs for a free box of cereal)
The beads would be the prize in the box.
There will never be a better ad campaign than Bud Light’s Real Men of Genius.
I forget the specifics of this.
A company manufactured a product which failed to sell because of the perception that it was too expensive.
They were advised to manufacture another, pricier model. The now cheaper product was then marketed on the basis of good value, which customers agreed with because they now had something to compare it with.
The original product sold in high numbers.
For me, there’s been nothing since to compare to the ca. 1967 Sunsweet Prune TV commercial:
I’m a fan of the Geico cavemen, particularly this ad:
What an asshole. 
Reminds me of a premium brand of faucets (might have been Koehler) where the chrome plating was so fragile you could only clean it with a soft cloth and water. The manufacturer boasted the finish was so perfect all you needed to clean it was a soft cloth and water, and put a little cloth in the box to prove their point.
Sometimes a marketing campaign backfires. Years ago, Xerox had a commercial in which the executive asked the office chimpanzee to make a copy for him. The idea was that using their copy machine was so easy even a chimpanzee could do it.
Those members of office staff whose responsibilities included making copies were not pleased, especially since reportedly in some workplaces people were leaving bananas on their desks. I think the ad ran for only a short time.
That reminds me of an old 80s SNL skit. A camera “so easy to use, even Stevie Wonder can do it”. Shows him at a tennis match. Then lots of blurry Polaroids. Not sure that would fly today, come up think of it.
The Kia hamsters (or gerbils).
