Insects As Marketing Instruments

The world of marketing is one big competition of brands fighting to get their portion of consumer attention. Communication gurus like Seth Godin have elaborated the one very important rule of the game: make your message remarkable, otherwise it will pass like a ship in the night. In their struggle for a big idea, advertising agencies seek the borders of the marketing, coming up with ideas that are on one hand highly creative, but on the other hand forcing mankind to discuss where these borders should lie… which could turn your message into something remarkable. Using flies as marketing instruments is such a concept.

For the occasion of the Buchmesse, a book festival and trading show in Frankfurt, Stuttgart-based advertising agency Jung von Matt/Neckar introduced the so-called Eichborn Fliegenbanner. To gain absolute attention of unsuspecting visitors, light-weight banner advertisements were attached to 200 flies which were set loose on unsuspecting visitors. The banners, measuring just a few centimeters across, were attached using natural wax. After a short time the banner dropped off by itself.

Wired writes that the weight of the banners “…keeps the flies at a lower altitude and forces them to rest more often, which is a stroke of genius on the part of the marketing creatives: the flies end up at about eye level, and whenever a fly is forced to land and recover, the banner is clearly visible”. Oh, by the way, no flies were harmed. Animal marketing is born…