Shtick

Ever ran into a "Shtick"? Nope its not another creative term for the warm sticky stuff your dog leaves on your lawn but it amazingly comes close in describing the same stuff you may encounter in malls and other shopping holes. "Shtick" is what your advertising and creative peeps use to describe the extreme "on-ground" marketing strategies they execute in a bid to get a share of your fleeting 21st century attention span. Yep they’re the little green hooded midgets giving out fliers promoting Mother Santa’s X-mas Sale or the 7-footer passing around invites to the Giant Bargain Extravaganza happening next week. Check out the "Pop-marketing" spin on that one! It’s interesting to take note that these attention begging stunts are also being used by political and religious forces as well. Take for example good Ol' Osama. He went a notch up my book for being the best advertising strategist after 9-11. He succeeded in creating the largest political billboard of all time! Who could ever miss two burning skyscrapers? Not to mention the advert freebies he got from CNN, BBC and Fox. He spun a movement that would surely outlast him and most remarkably tapped into the most basic and universal of all human instincts: fear. The only problem with that is that a typical advertising campaign usually includes different levels within its lifespan like a launch mode, a maintenance mode and a re-launch to name a few. These levels of advertising bursts are designed to make sure that the message sticks to your head big-time. I guess that with the WTC launch and the Bali/Madrid/London maintenance over, it would be logical to expect a re-launch soon. So stick to CNN guys and watch out for the next big OBL Shtick.