Advertise and They Will Come

This week reporter Crabby is bringing a few "odd news" stories from the rain soaked Midwest.  It could be said she is all wet but it probably wouldn't make her less crabby.  

There have been several news items about marketing ideas that sparked some customer feedback this week. Probably the most notable of the bunch was the JC Penney billboard.  It seems that many people saw something in the ad that the retailer didn't see.

What do you see???

In The Eye of The Beholder

A billboard shows the J.C. Penney teapot, which is being said to resemble Hitler to passing motorists. 

The ad, on Interstate 405 near Culver City, Calif., got lots of attention over the past few days as people went to social media sites buzzing about the odd resemblance to the dictator, Adolph Hitler.

The $40 kettle had black details that could conjure an image of Hitler's mustache and parted hair. With a little more imagination, the kettle spout could look like a right arm raised in a Nazi salute.

As of Wednesday, it was taken down. The Michael Graves-designed kettle was also gone from jcpenney.com. In the case of of the controversial kettle, Penney handled it with a light touch.  It took to Twitter to say that any likeness was "certainly unintended. If we had designed the teapot to look like something, we would have depicted a kitten tea kettle :)" it said via the @jcpenney handle.

Some entrepreneurs who got the teapots and saw an opportunity have taken to eBay to sell them. "Looks like Hitler," said one seller who priced available kettles at $249.99. "Impossible to find."

There are still a number of people bidding on these on EBay. There is nothing like controversy to help sell a product. 

Hair Brained Marketing

A New Jersey man who offered online bidders his spot in heaven said bidding reached $100,000 before eBay took down his proposal.

 

Ari Mandel, 31, who lived in an Orthodox Jewish community until he was 23 and now identifies himself as a theological atheist, said eBay removed an auction offering his "portion of Heaven," after it had obtained a high bid of $100,000, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

"It was nice to fantasize," Mandel told The Jewish Forward of his near payday. "But I didn't think it was going to happen."

The auction assured bidders Mandel had steered clear of sin by performing good deeds, refusing to worship false gods and being "98 percent vegan." The description promised Mandel would continue to live a good life to ensure the spot in heaven would remain available for the winning bidder.

Mandel described his posting as a harmless prank.

"To those of you who took this seriously, chill out. It was just a joke," he said. "Whether or not you're a believer in this sort of thing, chill out."

Mandel said he received a call from an eBay representative to inform him that intangible items cannot be auctioned on the site.

 Someone offered a $100, 000 for a place in heaven?? They must be pretty insecure about the likelihood of getting there on their own credentials. 

How Chic is Your Chicken?

A New Hampshire farmer is selling chicken accessories including diapers, clothing and rooster-proof saddles on her website.

Julie Baker of Claremont said she created the products found on Pampered Poultry for her own chickens, which she considers to be part of her family, and decided to share her creations with the chicken-loving public, WBZ-TV reported Thursday.

Baker said the diapers are designed to allow chicken fans to bring their birds into their homes without fearing the mess.

"When my daughter and I set out to design and sell chicken diapers, it was born not so much out of a need to literally pamper our poultry, but rather to share in the growing movement to bring chickens from an agriculture sphere and into the suburban/urban realm. We wanted to be part of the 'Backyard Chicken' movement," Baker wrote in her Farm Dreamer blog.

Baker's website sells clothing for chickens and saddles to guard hens' modesty against "not so gentle gentleman roosters."

I think she may of offended all the gentlemen roosters.

 Job Opportunity

When it comes to advertising, you'd think agencies have come up with just about every possible place to put an ad, but a Lexington, Kentucky ad firm is using a brand new spot to try and sell something: beards.

"Everyone seems to stare at an epic beard, so we thought that would be a great place for an advertisement," says Whit Hiler of Cornett Integrated Marketing Solutions.

Call it a beard-vertisement. "Beards are really hot right now," Hiler says. Literally and figuratively. The fast food chain A&W and an automotive company tried it as a promotional deal.

Men with beards were paid $5 to put a mini-billboard in their beard, and it created a lot of buzz.

"Since we've received so much press for the campaign, we've actually had some larger brands as well hit us up," Hiler says.

 I didn't realize that people were staring at "epic" beards.  What exactly makes a beard epic?