The Boston Bomb Scare Ad, Essay Example

The Boston Bomb Scare incident holds several important messages on the subject of marketing. First of all, marketing is all about getting the customers’ attention. No matter how effectively a marketing campaign might have been developed and how much resources might have been spent on it, it is a failure if it fails to grab customers’ attention. The marketers behind the electronic light boards did a great job in this area as they went for unconventional method to grab customers’ attention though they could not have predict the attention they got due to the scare.

The second lesson is that the context is important and the marketers failed here. The marketers failed to anticipate the potential of misunderstanding given the prevailing circumstances in America. The electronic light boards had components such as wires and circuit boards that are also incorporated into home-made bombs. The threat of terrorism is real in America and the public is bombarded with messages to report suspicious objects on a regular basis. Some may argue that the response of the authorities was embarrassing but the authorities did their job exactly as they were supposed to do. If this marketing campaign had taken place in pre-9/11 America, the situation would have been different because terrorism would not be something on the public’s mind.

The third lesson is that marketing campaign should take into account the different characteristics of the brand. The campaign was for a movie titled “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” (CNN). While the fans of the show by the same name would have recognized the marketing campaign, this could not be said for the majority of the public to whom the characters in the show are unknown. If the campaign were for a popular show or movie whose characters enjoy high familiarity, the potential for misunderstanding would have been a lot less. But the marketers overestimated the brand-recognition of the movie that the character in question would be recognized by the majority of the by-passers.

Thus, the incident proved that marketing campaign which is not backed by proper homework and research could have the undesirable results and instead of promoting the product, it may actually hurt the brand. The incident might have generated a great deal of free publicity but some of that was negative and this could have turned off some of the people who had planned to watch the movie upon its theatrical release.

Reference

CNN. Two held after ad campaign triggers Boston bomb scare. 31 January 2007. 21 November 2011 <http://articles.cnn.com/2007-01-31/us/boston.bombscare_1_bomb-scares-charlestown-district-court-peter-berdovsky?_s=PM:US>.