Five Lessons LifeStyles Condoms Learned From The Whole 50 Cent/Taco Bell Debacle
Peg your promotion to a Serious Cultural Issue, not a stupid menu change. “With teenage pregnancy running rampant throughout the US, LifeStyles Condoms wants to ensure that Miley Cyrus and her legions of loyal fans don’t become just more statistics.” You can’t tell me that doesn’t have more gravitas than being told that chalupas now only cost 99 cents.
Include the plights of other celebrities in your plea. (Note: The actors hired in your commercials don’t count.) Citing the breeding issues of the Spears ladies: Not only does it up the Google juice for your original press release, it creates a celebrity hierarchy of sorts, saying, “Look at these girls–we know you’re smarter than them, Miley! So why not prove it for our gain?”
Don’t make the offer contingent on anything stupid. 50 had to change his name and take the stage at a nearby drive-thru to collect his $10,000. Miley just has to show up at a commercial shoot and smile, maybe take a purity pledge.
Sex sells, even (especially?) to celebrities. Imagine if Taco Bell had said that the restaurant where 50 freestyled into the drive-thru would be staffed by hot ladies, and that the sauce packets would be renamed Sex Packets for the evening. Given his recent problems with the ladies, you’d think he’d jump at the chance to burnish his image as a male who’s at all attractive.
Offer a lot of money. Do you really think Curtis would have gone the litigation route if Taco Bell had added a few more zeroes to its initial $10,000 offer? Hell, he probably would have been “inspired” enough to help the Bell swing a deal to serve the Coca-Cola-owned Vitamin Water through its self-serve Pepsi fountains.
[Photo: AP]