Rival Popsicle Steals Snapple Spotlight
Snapple's ad agency's stunt snafu last weeks means lots of free headlines for rival Popsicle now part of the Good Humor Co. This blogger Joyce Schwarz draws on more than 15 years of experience in doing live promotions for major brands in cautioning clients that the 'promo' gods are always watching. Step on the competition --even lightly -- in developing your publicity stunt and you may get zapped back. What do I mean...well look at what happens when Snapple tries to promote their new "Ice Pops" with a giant ice sculpture in NYC.
click on thumnail to see what the Snapple ICE POP was going to look like at Union Square in NYC before it hit melt-down.
and then look at what really happens in 80 degree heat
in NYC:
click on thumbnail to
see MSNBC's Snapple disaster on the stick
Don't trust my word for it...look at what the NY Times News service says about the Snapple Snafu.
Huge publicity stunt by Snapple turns into mushy flopsicleNY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , NEW YORK
Thursday, Jun 23, 2005,Page 7 Under the noontime sun of New York's first day of summer, Snapple, the soft drink maker, answered the question of whether a 15.87 tonne Popsicle can be made to stand upright in Union Square. It cannot.
In a brave attempt to surpass a Guinness record -- "The World's Largest Popsicle" -- Snapple mixed and froze a gargantuan icy doppelganger of its new kiwi-strawberry Snapple on Ice. Then the frozen treat was hauled by freezer truck from Edison, New Jersey, and raised with an enormous crane in Manhattan.
Alas, like James Arness in the 1951 alien thriller The Thing From Another World, the giant Snapsicle began to melt. Soon pedestrians were fleeing in not-quite terror, fire trucks were converging and the police were closing off streets to contain the publicity stunt gone wrong.....Turns out Snapple is running a special promo that imprints trivia 'facts' on the Snapple Ice Pop Sticks...guess what was on the Stick that snapped? According to the Snapple press release: The topper: the "World's Largest Ice Pop," just like the original, will sport a Snapple "Real Fact" on the stick. The "Real Fact" states that an 11-year-old boy created the first ice pop in 1905. What the Snapple fact leaves out that this boy's name was Epperson and called it the Epsicle and his kids renamed it the Popsicle...Cached so it wasn't an "ICE POP" 100 years ago Snapple, it was a POPSICLE...is it any wonder your competitor got headlines for your stunt? TRUE STORY POPSICLE HISTORY courtesy of about.com ABOUT.COM tells true story about invention of POPSICLE...Popsicle In 1905, the Popsicle was invented by an eleven-year-old Frank Epperson. Frank Epperson was only 11 years old when he invented the originally named Epsicle. He had left his fruit flavored soda outside on the porch with a stir stick in it. The drink froze to the stick and tasted good. It took 18 more years in 1923 for Epperson to apply for a patent for a "frozen ice on a stick" called the Epsicle ice pop, which his children re-named the Popsicle. In 1925, Frank Epperson sold his famous Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Company of New York. Good Humor now owns the rights to the Popsicle. - The History of the Popsicle SNAPPLE is also placing real facts under the lids of their Snapple bottles too-- look at this one I found -- maybe their promo people should have kept that in mind: That's why I created this meme for Snapple stuntmen and women in the future to remember that the PROMO GODS are always watching...don't step on the competitor's brand in any way ...or else they'll get the headlines not yours...yep, even if the stunt fails...remember all publicity is good publicity.... click on thumbnail to see Snapple Popsicle is Flopsicle faux lid ...thanks to Snag-It Studio for making it easy to mock-up without even zapping to Photoshop. Don't launch a microwave oven in a Tornado.... PROMOS & STUNTS -- golden rule-- don't step on the competitor's history in any way...otherwise they might snap back. Believe me I know....after more than 100 promotions ranging from turning NYC into Hawaii and the internationally acclaimed "Missing Kids on the Milk Carton" campaign. Ask me some day about launching Microwave ovens in a Lightning storm...talking about a Tornado trouble.....for more info about blogger Joyce Schwarz promo background refer to her website link or email her at [email protected].
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