the thought

Last weekend, while browsing the shoe department at Nordstrom, a feathered pair of Manolo Blahnik stilettos caught my eye. While I was looking at these impractical, yet fabulous shoes, a sales girl disclosed to me that she had just bought them for her upcoming wedding. She mentioned she wouldn’t normally spend this much on a pair of shoes, but she couldn’t afford not to get them immediately because – “these are the shoes Carrie wears to her wedding in the new Sex and the City Movie – they will be out of stock by July.”

Carrie Bradshaw and the girls of Sex and the City made eclectic (and expensive) lines like Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo and Prada a wardrobe staple. One could even argue Carrie did for Jimmy Choo what Michael Jordan did for Nike. With the much anticipated “Sex and the City - The Movie”, coming to theaters May 30th, large corporations are hoping to jump on the Sex and the City bandwagon and use the movie and character’s influence on 20-30-40 something’s to help make everything from water to vodka to shoes to cars a household name – it has been deemed by New Line Cinema “the Super Bowl for Women”. The subtle placement and mention of Carrie’s Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks have women all over the country coveting pricey high heels. Brands like Vitamin Water and Mercedes Benz are hoping to have the same response through placement that is “organic to the lives of the ladies”. The girls will no longer only be sipping on Cosmopolitans, but bottles of Vitamin Water. Mr. Big has given up his town car and will now be traveling around The City in his Mercedes.

While subtle placement may or may not prove to be powerful marketing within the movie, Mercedes and Skyy Vodka are taking their partnership and exposure to the next level as promotional sponsors. Mercedes has already been promoting the movie in its commercials and Skyy Vodka is sponsoring drink specials (cosmos anyone?) at select bars throughout, where else, Manhattan.

I couldn’t help but wonder… will the thousands of women who rush to see the movie find these additional product placements irritating , ruining the integrity of their beloved show and cast, or will they eat it - or buy it - up? The evidence is in the shoes…..

08:47 AM | Permalink

VS

In breaking the ice at a lunch recently, a radio rep asked me which radio stations I listen to. Without hesitation I mentioned that I’m a loyal XM Radio listener- both in my car and at my desk via it’s streaming feature. The rep was a bit surprised by this but it created an interesting dialogue through the first part of the lunch.

From my side it showed that many in the radio community still haven’t given satellite radio much credit. I hope that satellite radio gets the respect it deserves as I feel that it’s serving an ever growing segment of the audience, especially as radio stations tend to have a tendency to continually tinker with format changes in the hopes of getting higher ratings but in turn usually turning off long time & loyal listeners whose favorite station and/or DJs have suddenly disappeared. And once the Sirius/XM merger gets approved and implemented, well, I think we’ll see satellite radio really go main stream.

And what channel am I listening to right now on XM.com? Lucy, channel 54, which is classic alternative hits.

09:48 AM | Permalink

Driving south on I-25 today I saw a Coors Light billboard that said:

You know it’s cold when the mountains turn blue.

Or something to that effect. And I remarked to my passenger, “Do they mean that the mountains on the label turn blue? Isn’t that kind of expensive for a label?” And he pointed out that they probably own a factory that can do that. But what I was thinking as he was saying that is, “Do we really need help figuring this out?” And then I thought, “That’s not the clearest language in the world.” And then I thought, “Hmm, maybe there’s a double entendre in there.”

Turns out that they have a cold-activated bottle – see notes on their website www.coorslight.com/coldactivatedbottle. Yikes. We’re getting’ pitiful. And who knows what they really meant with their copy on their very expensive billboard. Would I buy a beer because it tells me when it’s cold?

Not that beer. You’d really have to like the beer to begin with, no?

09:41 AM | Permalink