Tattoo My Forehead
- Posted by Phillip Molnar on July 28th, 2008
filed in Advertising, Marketing |
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Finally! A way to make yourself look dumber - despite that Chinese lettering tattoo you got back in ‘99.
Advertisers have been tapping the final frontier of advertising - the human body - for a few years now. Starting back in 2001, Internet gambling site GoldenPalace.com paid boxer Bernard Hopkins $100,000 to wear a temporary tattoo on his back during his championship fight with Félix Trinidad. GoldenPalace.com followed that up with Fox’s Celebrity Boxing in which Tonya Harding, Todd Bridges and Danny Bonaduce wore temporary tattoos.
According to USA Today, that stunt increased GoldenPalace.com’s web traffic 200% in the 24 hours after Celebrity Boxing.
So, is branding a human being wrong? People have been standing on street corners for decades wearing signs advertising everything from the end of the world to shoes. In fact, one of my mildly respectable friends held a “$5-a-pizza” sign for Little Ceasars in college. Given that, what’s the big deal if the tattoo is temporary?
Well, aside from consumer action groups, like Commercial Alert that protest the temporary tattoos as demeaning, the main opponents are advertisers and promoters. The problem with advertising on an athlete’s back is that it cuts into the profits of other advertisers that sponsor the event or paid to have their logo posted around the stadium (or ring). It’s not bad for the athlete though: they get paid directly.
Since 2001, tattoo advertising has gotten even crazier. Goldenpalace.com paid streakers at the 2003 French Open and UEFA Cup to run across the field with Golden Palace’s logo on their backs, Toyota paid 40 people to walk around Times Square with “Toyota Scion” written on their foreheads, and 22-year-old Jim Nelson sold the space on the back of his head to advertise CIHost.com with a PERMANENT tattoo for $7,000.
Just do a quick search on google for “tattoo advertising” and you’ll get plenty of opportunities for advertising on yourself. For example, leaseyourbody.com promises “BIG $$$$$” for leasing your body. I mean with five $ symbols, how can you go wrong?
July 28th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
For the record, no one was paid BIG $$$$$ or even small $$$ for the brogan.com tatoo. (However, I did surreptitiously exchange a PERMANENT marker for the washable one..) Ha ha!
July 28th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I don’t see anything wrong with it. I mean, if someone is willing to walk around with tattoo advertising, be it permanent or temporary, it is their own choice. I will have to keep sending George Lucas letters to let him know that I will get a Boba Fett Tattoo to promote Star Wars if he pays me a measley $100,000 though.