Mortification potential: high

re: Mortification potential: high

HeatherLeigh — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 21:35:11 GMT

One thing though...I assume the point of the campaign (if it's indeed a recruiting campaign, which I belive it is) is to get people hired, not just drive traffic to the site. So traffic from people that are grossed out by the site isn't really going to help them. It's kind of like what I was talking about with target audience. Eyeballs are good, the right eyeballs are best.

re: Mortification potential: high

Barry — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 18:35:48 GMT

From my perspective this campaign has almost nothing to do with Dating Lance. They chose something specifically that would be controversial to drive traffic, get recruitment, and get everyone to see the imagery. How many thousands of people have now seen the LogoWorks logo and have had it permanently branded into their brain?

Being single myself, I find this route of advertising definately something I wouldn't be willing to do. There are specifically some things that should not be for sale and honestly my dating life should not be used for corporate goodness. In the same regard to some of the reality TV shows, I would think that almost any relationship started for such reasons would surely have increased chances of failing. (Maybe it's the hopeless romantic in me?)

re: Mortification potential: high

Peter Clayton — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 16:01:49 GMT

Hi Heather,
IMHO, here's an example of a GREAT online marketing campaign... funny, relevant - sure to create a buzz

http://www.landed.fm/shows/gautam.html

re: Mortification potential: high

HeatherLeigh — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 01:50:42 GMT

Ingenious in getting eyeballs. Loaded with HR violations! I'm 99% sure it's fake too but 1) still gross and 2) containing lots of stuff that could get them in trouble. So, overall, I'm not buying into the conclusion that they are "smart" for doing this.

re: Mortification potential: high

Doug Kentner — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 18:56:16 GMT

I think the nail in the coffin for this site being some miguided recruiting attempt comes from the FAQ page:

"LogoWorks is a fun place. We'll do just about anything to make our employees truly happy!"

Personally I think everyone is taking the campaign a little too seriously. (for example I think the disputed quotes are most likely false, and constructed specifically for this site) As in patBlue's case i'm local to the area in question so I probably have somewhat of a unique understanding of the area's dynamics. I don't agree in the least with launching a recruiting campaign of this type without express permission of the person being spotlighted. Granted this campaign was probably not engineered very well, or perhaps even thought through to logical conclusion (or perhaps it was), it wouldn't be the first time that a company pushed out commercials or marketing materials of a questionable nature (something released by microsoft some time back involving lingere and Microsoft Office) comes to mind. So perhaps it's best to take the advertising for what it is, a gimick. And if everyone pays a bunch of attention to it, then it's done exactly what it was designed to do.

re: Mortification potential: high

Chris Woodruff — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 08:18:56 GMT

Is it the first of April because I am smelling a pile of dung!!! That has got to be the cheapest way to get a million eyeballs into your company. Despicable but ingenious.

Now that would have been a great episode of The Apprentice... teams go an try to make a marketing plan out of something totally unrelated to the company and then execute it!! I would have enjoyed that episode myself. :)

re: Mortification potential: high

Tim — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 02:24:19 GMT

RE the CEO's comments: "I knew the first time I met with Lance that I wanted to hire him, but that he'd be the only person on our marketing team without a significant other."

Wow. Sounds like someone needs a little retraining from HR about even <u>discussing</u> a candidate's marital status. Or significant other status.

But then again, I'm with AdRants, it's a fake.

re: Mortification potential: high

Lourdes — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 01:14:24 GMT

Ewwww.

Actually, that pretty much sums it up - Ewww.

As a single Marketing Director type with no "significant other", I'm rendered vaguely nauseous.

re: Mortification potential: high

Sam — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 00:48:28 GMT

Oh, honestly, everything in advertising is about attention.

They want attention, they do something funky.

They got your attention, you even drew more attention to it by posting it in your blog: they won.

re: Mortification potential: high

Jonathan — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 00:14:12 GMT

I'm surprised it's taken this long for the reality mentality to hit the web, especially given the success of even the worst TV series. I believe this type of "is it real or advertising" will grow and will create more blurry lines between reality and advertising. If there can be "Marry My Dad", "Marry a Millionaire", "Marry a Stranger", etc, etc. then the extension will be a flurry of "Date Me" websites. The difference here is that a company has involved itself fully in the process and "unbeknownst" to Lance.

The world is changing and the mores of yesteryear have been obliterated. It just means I have to take more time to read the fine print. The question is going to be whether this results in "15 minutes of fame" for this company or translates into a "black hole" that they won't crawl out of.