Could you interrupt me more, please?
July 6th, 2006
We get solicitations like this one (I received yesterday) all the time:
I’d like to raise the awareness level at your firm of our effective, unconventional and fun advertising medium, “Top of the Pizza Box”. Custom messages on “Top of the Pizza Box” create demand, inform and improve sales. It’s proving effective for Financial Services, Retail, Auto Dealerships and Consumer Services companies. Currently our clients’ messages are being seen, thought-about and talked about in the workplace, around the dinner table, over a card game and even while having lunch in the park.
“Top of the Pizza Box” is catching on fast, impressively building awareness and demand for a wide array of services and products. We enable Advertisers to select communities locally by zones and/or zip codes. It’s an unexpected way to advertise but very effective because we empower the Advertisers with complete demographic selectors (census) to fine tune the target audience and the reach…down to our contracted pizzerias. High selectivity is achieved based on age, family unit, income and race, etc. allowing for comprehensive planning and results.
The Ads are seen, read and even discussed while the “buyers pause in their day” to enjoy the pizza. Our coverage of the five NYC boroughs and northern NJ is unprecedented which results in remarkable reach for the Ads. We distribute over 5 million boxes every quarter reaching over 11 million people in the NYC metro area. Most boxes have a 20-to-30 minute “viewing life” in front of the target audience.
I strongly urge your favorable consideration to meet with your firm to explore how “Top of the Pizza Box” advertising might fit as part of your clients’ overall advertising mix. I will follow up to request a meeting.
Sincerely,
George Popov
Managing Director – Sales
Do you seriously think that I want to be a part of intruding on someone’s mealtime? (Or have someone intrude on mine!?) Advertisers are getting desperate, my friends. And with every square inch of real estate that’s covered up with ads, resistance to and the ability to ignore those very ads become stronger.
Hey, why do I want pizza for lunch all of a sudden?
Other posts by Spike.
cheryl says:
This was a good post. Man . . . no peace.
July 6th, 2006 at 9:30 pmGammo says:
“Currently our clients’ messages are being seen, thought-about and talked about in the workplace, around the dinner table, over a card game and even while having lunch in the park.”
The hell? I know absolutely no one who reviews pizza boxes and discusses them over a meal… other than myself and design buddies critiquing the design or something. I guess with the ads on the box, the discussion would be focused on its absurdity.
July 8th, 2006 at 3:05 pmIan says:
Slight technical problem with this idea
I tend to flip the top of the box over and use it as a plate (less clearing up), meaning the top of the box is facing the desk while I’m eating.
So, I might get a glance as the pizza arrives (too hungrey to care what’s on the top) and on the 1 sec journey from desktop to bin. But otherwise it’s hidden.
anyone else have the same thoughts
July 9th, 2006 at 4:05 pmpaul says:
I likie: “I’d like to raise the awareness level at your firm….” (passive voice! Get some testosterone!) And I especially love: “I strongly urge your favorable consideration to meet with your firm…”
Now THAT’s a desperate man. Did the letter have a ticking sound in it? Does the company itself advertise on the tops of pizza boxes? Now THAT’s putting your money where your pizza is!
Regarding the use of the pizza box as ad canvas, don’t miss Pappa Johns’ take:
http://www.thecoolhunter.net/ads/PAPA-JOHNS-PIZZA-GETS-IT-RIGHTS/
From the very site that tracks the creative desperation, at least in many entertaining ways:
http://www.thecoolhunter.net/ads/
July 10th, 2006 at 8:52 amolivier blanchard says:
Pffft. Boxes are so 2003. I know a one-legged guy in Brussels who’ll put your logo directly on the pizza cheese.
July 17th, 2006 at 6:08 pmBird says:
Check out what this guy thought. I’d rather have an ad on a pizza box, then a 2 minute break in the middle of the TV show I’m watching…
October 18th, 2006 at 6:43 amhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/kipbot/230379050/