Manizesto

Either the people who came up with these campaigns are completely out of their minds, or they deserve big raises. Here’s six of the most bizarre marketing campaigns in recent history:

6. Skittles Beard & Sour Milk ads.

I can only imagine how bizarre the conversations leading up to the latest Skittles ads were:

“Fisher! The TV ads for Skittles are just not standing out. We need something better! Different! Whadya got?”

“Uh, ok, uhhh, how about a guy that always has sour milk because the man he milks in his barn whose milk he drinks has been eating sour Skittles?”

“Good, good. What else you got?”

“Okay, great. Uhhh, let’s see…Oh I know! What about if we had a guy sitting at a job interview and his beard is feeding him skittles while a lady reviews his resume?”

“Nice, very nice. Run with both of those!”

Watch Skittles Beard, Skittles Sour Milk and other weird Skittles ads. Truthfully, I love these ads.

5. Cartoon Network Boston Bomb Scare.

This campaign will probably go down as one of the stupidest, most hair-brained marketing ideas ever. Back in ‘07, the Cartoon Network was trying to publicize the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force by placing circuit boards around downtown Boston with a character from the show made from LED lights on them. The oddly-placed “ads” looked conspicuously like bombs however, prompting the Boston bomb-squad to get involved, the entire city to be shut down, and a lame apology to be issued from Ted Turner and clan (more on that).

4. Chuck Norris Endorses Mike Huckabee.

Okay, this one is actually pretty brilliant, but you can’t deny the oddness of a Presidential candidate using Chuck Norris to bolster his campaign. Very clever, slightly off-center.

“My plan to secure the border? Two words: Chuck. Norris.” Seriously. He said that.

Watch the ad yourself.

3. Kohler Toilets.

The new toilets from Kohler are supposed to be very efficient and well-designed, but did you also know they allow you to flush various household products down the drain with no problem? Well, you can. And here’s a website that let’s you virtually flush stuff down the toilet with the help of a comely plumber.

I guess I just don’t see the point with this campaign; is it to show you that even if you pass bricks, they will flush, or is it to assure you that no matter what your toddler puts into the toilet, it will go down just fine? Not to mention what municipal city sewage workers will have to deal with if people realize they can flush anything down the toilet.

Check it out.

2. Batman: The Dark Knight.

Warner Bros. has tried just a little too hard with their latest viral marketing campaign promoting the upcoming Batman movie.

A synopsis:

The viral marketing for Knight involved following clues on various websites, which led you to even more websites, which led you to phone lines. Eventually you would be led to a bakery, where you could pick up a free mystery cake. Baked inside the cake was a cell phone, and further instructions.

Here’s more. I can’t imagine the amount of money spent on such a weird campaign, especially since most people would never go to that much trouble to spread the word about a movie.

1. Nine Inch Nails “Year Zero” Album Release.

To the NIN faithful, this is probably a delightful campaign, but to the average Joe, NIN’s marketing for their Year Zero album release was just plain weird.

The campaign was basically a series of disturbing, pseudo-conspiracy theory websites that took visitors from one strange theory of the U.S. government’s suppressive, controlling programs to another. Even more strange was that the campaign was discovered only after fans noticed certain letters highlighted on the back of a tour-schedule t-shirt and searched for more clues online.

One site (IamTryingToBelieve.com) told users the government had been putting the drug Parepin in the water so citizens wouldn’t know bio-terrorism was being waged against them. Huh?

Another site (AnotherVersionOfTheTruth.com) purported to have a message from the U.S. Department of Morality with the message “America is Born Again.”

They also started BeTheHammer.org and ChurchofPlano.com. I’m still trying to figure out what all that has to do with NIN.

Notable Oddities:

Sony PSP ad, World of Warcraft & Mr. T, and I’m not even sure if this is an ad campaign or actually serious, the book Why is there a server in my house?