great ideas in marketing
Background music: Edward Horne, "Blue (The Fall So Far)"
May 7, 9:18 am ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Marijuana-scented cell phone covers caused such a buzz in Australia that the company selling them had to pull them out of an technology fair in Sydney on Wednesday.
Local authorities and New South Wales state Premier, Bob Carr, slammed the green, marijuana-motif covers as promoting drug use to young people.
"A big over-reaction," said Robert Punch, owner, chief executive and founder of Corporate Phone Covers.
"It's a novelty. You wouldn't go and buy a big block of chocolate after smelling the chocolate one," he told Reuters.
Made in China and arrayed next to chocolate, strawberry, blueberry, cherry and rose-scented snap-on covers, the marijuana version sold well, though only to the over 18s, Punch said.
"It sells better than the strawberry, much better," he said.
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Actually, this really sounds like a great idea. I'd love to have one, except I'd start jonesing every time I made or answered a call.
Then there's those pesky drug-sniffing dogs. You know how easily clothing picks up odors. Just imagine, all your jackets and pants would smell like kind bud. If you wear your phone in a holster or on a clip attached to your belt, your belt would smell very tasty, at least in that one spot.
Wash your clothes all you want, you'll never get the smell out of that belt.
And, if you carry your phone in your purse, how are you going to wash the smell out of that? Same problem as the belt, maybe worse.
Sure, it's a great conversation starter, but just think:
Try to get into a court building now, try to fly (you never know where those damn dogs are going to show up). Even if the "dope phone" is just a nostalgia thing for you, you're in for a strip search and a missed flight, even if you leave the phone home (and what's the point of a cell phone if you're going to need to do that?). They even bring in the dogs on traffic stops sometimes now. Just try to explain that one to the wife and the boss, when your name shows up in the local paper's "Police Beat." ("Local man's car searched by drug-sniffing dogs after routine traffic stop; dogs indicate presence of marijuana, but none found; car impounded at local body shop for dissection.")
OK, the nostalgia trip is pretty high on my list too, at least in some specific areas. Reefer leaves painted on the phone, sure, but when it smells like you have a bud strapped to your hip ... who do you think you are, Peter freakin' Tosh?
Shine on, you crazy diamonds. Burn one for me while you're at it. Hey, there's a great idea for the nutters in Oz who are so offended by these cannabis-smelling phone covers: buy a lot of them, and burn them in a public bonfire. Poetic irony.
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