LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HOW LOW WILL THEY GO?

“Flatiron Follies” (Direct Hit, May 15) was another great example of consumer resistance to marketing and the empowerment by consumers to do something about the saturation strategies of today’s marketers. Well done. Very similar to the public outrage with Major League Baseball during the ill-fated “Spider-Man 2” promotion last summer. We continue to see a need for marketers to come to concurrence with consumers by being more precise and relevant with their marketing while delivering the power and reciprocity that is so coveted by today’s consumer.

On a humorous (and sad) note, this saturation marketing has sunk to a new level. Ray’s editorial mentioned the outfit that’s putting TVs above urinals. Well, another outfit has gone lower…literally. There is a group called Wizmark that has produced a product that plays advertising (in many forms) when “activated” at a men’s urinal.

Not sure what this says for our advertisers — things have literally gone down the drain. We have a long way to go, both direct and mass marketers alike.
Craig M. Wood
Group President
Yankelovich Inc.
Chapel Hill, NC

IT’S CHIC, NOT INSULTING

Regarding The Makeover Maven (July): I have a lot of respect for Tom Collins. I’m also a copywriter. So I sometimes have fumed that young hotshot art directors often destroy the power of words by suppressing them, for the sake of art, into what seems like beautiful mouse type. (I am copywriter, hear me squeak?)

I am also, sex notwithstanding, a bit of a techno-freak. Just hate it when ads for computers and printers leave out stats down to the geekiest detail. My studio is my life.

But when it comes to tiny cameras — now we’re talking fashion accessory! Every tiny evening bag has one jammed inside next to the cell phone. Every bridesmaid, every bride’s auntie, is snapping fashionably. And (my observation) no one seems to know how to work them. It’s how they look that makes the sale.

So, even at $500 — less than the cost of some equally ridiculous stilettos — the Sony fashion-lifestyle-camera-for-dummies creative approach is appropriate. Not insulting. Chic.

Sorry, this one’s a girl thing.
Peggy Greenawalt
President/Creative Director
Tomarkin/Greenawalt Inc.
Hartsdale, NY