Need More Marketing Cash, My Budget Is Only $3.42Bn
October 26th, 2006
OK, who in their right mind would spend that amount? Which company has this as their marketing budget?
Is it Berkshire Hathaway? Maybe Warren Buffet has opened up his purse and decided let the Benjamins run free. After all, their stock price recently cracked US$100,000 per ‘A’ Share. Yes… 1 single share will be a nice $100K investment for you, but of course you can’t buy shares in 1’s, you would need to buy 100 shares. D’Oh! Maybe it is Microsoft, as they have US$50Bn kicking around in their coffers. Maybe Telstra, have lost it and decided to plough that money back into promoting their Next Gen network service/T3 share offer. (Note: Next Gen = 3G - but because they are a year behind schedule Next Gen sounds cooler).
Well the answer is none of those. AU$3.42Bn has been spent on the US Senate elections. Yes, it is the politicians (and potential politicians) that are being this wasteful. Worryingly still, the ‘experts’ believe there is a lot more cash available to throw at advertising.
The Marketing Man For This Campaign Is Confident Of Victory
The integrity of the American ‘champagne campaign’ is what sets them apart from the rest of the world. Smear campaign after smear campaign. This normally works but in California, Mary Carey was taking on the Terminator/Governator for Governor of California. She used to be a pornstar so any kind of smear campaign was lost. However, she pulled out because her mother was sick. We’d hate to see how long she would’ve lasted during a war or natural disaster. Only in America (and Italy).
Another favourite is Tennessee hopeful, Harold Ford. He is receiving heavy criticism in advertisements for attending a Playboy magazine, Super Bowl party. Naturally, a model has appeared on TV saying how she met him at the Playboy party and one thing led to another. Of course, she is acting with the utmost integrity on behalf of the people. Free from sin.
Imagine if we had breaking news about our Prime Minister, John Howard, hanging out with Hugh Hefner in the Playboy mansion. That would surely be announced as a future National Holiday. Except the Labour party would object to misuse of public funds because they hadn’t thought of it first.
It’s not all poor spending and smear campaigns as Michael J Fox, a victim of Parkinson’s disease, is currently assisting the Democrats in Maryland while promoting stem cell research. This advert has created a lot of publicity, the way real marketing should - Addressing the issues, the resolution of those issues and making people think.
The question is given the choice would you market your company or market the deficiencies in your competition?
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