The devil made me do it Dec 1, 1998 12:00 PM
, CATALOG AGE STAFF
JobZone
Search and post jobs for the Multichannel Merchant. Including jobs for brand & agency marketers, e-commerce, catalog marketers, ops & fulfillment, direct marketing and more.
Before we get too caught up in procrastinating on our holiday shopping,
it's time for us to award our favorite Halloween catalog cover. And the
lucky winner is... Archie McPhee, that venerable outfitter of pop culture.
Presented in "terrifying McPhee-o-vision," the cover of the collector's
edition #58 catalog features Evil Bendy, who has unceremoniously just
decapitated Happy Face Bendy.
Note: If you really have to ask "what are Bendys?" and are not familiar
with these six-inch-tall, bright yellow bendable figures, then the charms
of this particular catalog cover may well be lost on you, you...cultural
illiterate.
Inquiring minds want to buy
Catalog creative consultants always proclaim that "b-to-b doesn't have to
be boring," yet few business mailers support their claim. But ice chest
manufacturer Igloo has taken the ultimate sexy approach by turning its
dealer catalog into the Igloo Inquisitor, a fake tabloid magazine. A sample
of a courtroom drama report: "In response to the prosecution's objection
that there was no way the defendant's lunch could have stayed cool and
fresh on the humid night in question, the defense produced an Igloo
personal-size ice chest with his lunch inside and coined the now familiar
phrase, 'If the food is cool, you must overule.'"
Igloo, a unit of Brunswick Corp.'s Outdoor Recreation Group, also includes
fake ads in the catalog for cheesy home study courses, fad diets, and
telephone psychics-it even features company officers in mock ads for
decoraztive "heirloom" plates. Kudos to a creative and timely effort,
particularly in light of the nation's growing obsession with gossip and
scandal. But would this catalog approach work with dental drill bits?
