VOICES: Big Fat Inc. No Big Fat Deal
If you've spent any time in Philadelphia, New York City or Baltimore within the past couple of years, you may be a Big Fat victim and not even know it.
Big Fat Inc. is a radical marketing firm that utilizes techniques such as real-life product placement and guerrilla street theatre to increase the sales of its client's products.
You're at an area hot spot and notice a group of hip, young people enjoying an interesting new cocktail - say a flavored water or herbal energy drink with vodka. "It tastes great and prevents you from getting a hangover," one of the pretty people tells you as she places her order for another round. Before you know it you're telling the bartender, "I'll have one of the same."
It's an idea that I read about a few months ago in a "science fiction" novel. The protagonist was on to the ineffectual teenager who had pitched him a Marlboro marijuana cigarette, however, and the whole scene just made me giggle. Now that I've been turned on to the clear and present reality of Big Fat's "stealth marketing" techniques, I think I might have to upgrade that giggle to a full-blown laugh.
Critics have labeled Big Fat's invisible marketing "unethical," asserting that people have the right to know when they are in an advertising zone. Are Big Fat's "secret agents of capitalism" being deceitful by not revealing source of their praise for product X is a Big Fat paycheck? Sure, they are. Is it fraud? No. Not according to the legal system, anyway.
There are marketing trends out there I find far more annoying than stealth marketing. My sister has recently exposed me to the one that has resulted in products labeled "Non-Ultra" Palmolive and "Original Classic" International Delight non-dairy creamer. You can be afraid of being duped by Big Fat, but I'm far more disturbed by the idiotic language brandishing the front of these products.
The power of word-of-mouth endorsement has long been acknowledged and grassroots campaigns are not an overnight revelation. What is new is that big time advertisers are now shooting small - the same old tricks just aren't working anymore. Discouraged by viewers that subtract commercials while recording programs, some advertisers are reverting to the program sponsorship of years past which boasts a pitch before and after programming but not during. That's an improvement, in my estimation. However, don't be surprised to see the program's talent performing in front of an obviously logo-branded curtain. Hey, I loved that movie The Truman Show, maybe it will come out on FOX this fall. Do you think they can get Ed Harris?
What's most reassuring is that it's not only in America that the advertising industry is getting desperate. In Europe, they're supposedly painting ads on the side of live cows.
"There is nothing that's not about marketing. Look, the government is running a marketing campaign on the war. Every minute of your day is about marketing," Big Fat CEO Jonathan Ressler insisted to Promo Magazine in February.
I'll admit it, I've found the 300 lb. CEO of Big Fat, Jonathan Ressler, rather appealing. The man knows how to make a point and he's very savvy in print. No matter how forceful and invasive advertising tactics may get, I can't help but delight in their creativity. From the posters of Toulouse Lautrec and his contemporaries to the outrageous obviousness with which '50s era ad men conspired to create the American Dream, I've always admired the artistic results of advertising.
Furthermore, I'm compelled to be fair. I've cheered on the anti-marketing guerrilla performances of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping . His Starbucks Invasion plan is beautiful. And I love the fact that people push empty shopping carts around mega chain stores once a month during Whirl-Mart performance protests .
It would be hypocritical to deny equal opportunity to the dark side. Like it or not, they're going to try to sell us stuff anyway. We might as well insist on ingenuity, then sit back and enjoy the show.
-- alicia grega-pikul, 16 January 2003
