Rolling Rock stirred up some on- and offline discussion and exposed a few folks to be slightly gullible with its tongue-in-cheek campaign touting Moonvertising this month.
Billboards in the New York area and around the country popped up with an illustration of a Rolling Rock beer ad being projected on the moon with the tagline “Moovertising is Coming! Watch the next full moon” and listing a web address. Ron Stablehorn, VP of marketing for Rolling Rock, “explains” the campaign at moonvertising.com:
Rolling Rock is an independently spirited beer that does things differently, which is why we’re trying a new, more tasteful marketing approach this year: putting our logo on the moon – moonvertising, and now, utilizing this revolutionary website, you can broadcast your own message on the moon as well.
A few people close to me fell for this and I’ll spare them the misery of not identifying them. But kudos to Rolling Rock (and Goodby Silverstein) for breathing some life and adding a digital connection to the staid medium of billboard advertising, even if it was only to direct the public to a website.
The most entertaining aspect of the campaign however is the rants in the blogosphere, where some expressed
outrage at the concept of ads on the moon, others questioned whether the FAA would allow the stunt, and still others intricately pondered the technical capability required of such a bold marketing endeavor.
Here are a few links to some of the online chatter: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.
All of the talk was solid buzz for Rolling Rock, even if some potential customers were left feeling sheepish.
After the first moonvertising date came and went, Rolling Rock posted a YouTube video outlining their “failures” by showing footage of their massive green laser partially destroying an Egyptian pyramid, flooding Florida, and accidentally vaporizing a Chicago Bear football player mid-stride. That video was viewed more than 330K times.
Stablehorn late last week via YouTube offered a misty "apology" for some of the outrage at RR's attempt to moonvertise.
He vows to try again in April.
The Cincinnati Reds, meanwhile, have concocted their own challenge to physics – albeit on a smaller scale – with another impossible promotion drawing buzz. The baseball club has perched a Toyota Tundra truck 500 feet from home plate on a large pedestal with the promise to give a vehicle away to a fan if a Red manages to hit the truck with a colossal home run. One astute Reds blogger noted that a significant tail wind and ideal atmospheric conditions would be required for such a shot.
The Reds say they'll give the truck away at the end of the year if no one hits it.