Monday, July 23, 2007

Successful advertising

Margaret and I went to the coast with Will and Deb this weekend (despite the Harry Potter release... more on that later). We stayed in a sleepy little coast town called Neskowin (a Siletz Indian word meaning "backwater") that was so small that it only had one Kwik-E-Mart style shop, a post office that was in the hotel lobby, a stagecoach station, and a single restaurant. It was perfect for getting away from it all... and by 'all' I mean kitschy shops, salt water taffy stands, and electricity. While I was in the Kwik-E-Mart waiting in the checkout line, I overheard a couple in front of me asking the woman at the register if the closest place for pizza was in Lincoln City (about 1/2-hour away). The woman replied, "We have an oven here... we can cook a frozen pizza for you." To which the customer said that they were really looking for something a little more upscale. Without hesitation, the woman added, "Well, we have DiGiorno!" I guess their marketing message got through! In fact, maybe I should send the story to Mega-Chem Corp. (owner's of DiGiorno and Mama's Organic Selections Foods), for them to use in their advertising.

Later that night, Margaret and I were Potter-crazy enough to drive the half-hour to Lincoln City. Will and Deb passed on the opportunity for adventure and opted to stay in the warm and dry hotel while Margaret and I braved the torrential rains and gale-force winds... probably sent by the Dark Lord himself to block our passage. Seriously, several times we thought, "This is CRAZY! Why are we DOING this?" It was hard to see, dangerous driving conditions, and late at night, but we slogged on. We'd been to every other initial release since book 2, so HAD to do it. We were compelled, as if someone were using the Imperius curse on us (and I think that it was the publisher). Eventually we got to the Lincoln City library, where there were several hundred people milling around foaming at the bit to get their hands on the last book. We were number 79 on the list, and at about 10 minutes after midnight, we finally got our hands on the book. We left right after, as there were kids already skipping to the end and reading aloud the final word, (it's "well" if you wondered), and then trying to read aloud the last paragraph. We heard some parents saying, "We gotta get out of here... this is breaking down." Margaret and I ran from the library with our fingers in our ears to make sure we didn't hear anything about the story as we sprinted to the car. The drive back was just as dangerous, but fortunately the only driving mistake I made was trying to get into the parking lot of the hotel and accidentally turned onto their lawn. (Which made Margaret really confident in how well I could see in the dark.) Now I'm patiently waiting for Margaret to finish the book so I can read the startling conclusion... so don't tell me ANYTHING!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The real question is, did they go with DiGiorno?