Posted by Molly Nelson - In the fourth-season opener of AMC's
Mad Men, Pete Campbell expresses his frustration at the unwillingness of his client, Sugarberry Hams, to increase their advertising budget to fellow advertising executive Peggy Olson. Olson hatches a plan to hire two actresses to fight over one of Sugarberry's canned hams, in hopes that the stunt will draw some interest, and so prompt Sugarberry to buy more ads.
While in the end Sugarberry does increase their ad budget, I'm not sure this ploy can fully be classified as a success. Not only is Don Draper, Campbell and Olson's boss, upset that neither of them consulted him about the plan, one of the actresses ends up pressing assault charges against the other.
Similar to the canned ham scheme, Entrepreneur
looks at a few recent marketing stunts - some that were successful, and some that didn't quite make the cut.
What's the craziest thing you've ever done to market your product? Did it work? Let us know in the comments!