The Marketing behind the Swine Flu

Excuse me, the H1N1 flu. In case you didn’t know, our Agricultural Department has officially renamed this ailment the H1N1 flu in effort to reverse declining pork sales.

Actually, H1N1 was a compromise after a last-minute rejection of a name suggested by the National Pork Board: “The Other White-Meat” Flu.

Now that I think about it, they name and re-name sports stadiums, why can’t they do the same for news events? It would be a relatively cheap way to get your company’s name out. I can see it now.

“And in other celebrity news, Brad “We build excitement” Pitt announced he’s adopting another 18 children.”

Oops. Bad example. That’s Pontiac’s slogan, which GM is closing down shortly. Maybe had Pontiac sponsored the Somali pirates, or A-Rod’s steroid abuse, the resulting publicity would have saved the company.

Anyway, I digress. In terms of a marketing case study, the H1N1 flu has been a brilliant success: lots of hype, hours of media coverage, and relatively few casualties. If the number of casualties was equal to the media coverage, heck, they’d be 3 people left on this earth by now. And two pigs.

Not that I want H1N1 virus to be more effective. For anything that can wipe us off the face of the earth, I’d prefer the marketing to overshadow the execution.

Only 1 insect was harmed in the creation of this blog post.

Today, our beloved praying mantis, Stan, who's been sitting on our home page since February, finally hit the unemployment line.

On the brighter side, our new website is up! We've spent months baking it, and it turned out nice and browned - but not too crispy. Check it out: http://www.advantages.net/

We're adding work every day, so be on the lookout for cool, new stuff!

Let me know how you like it.