Good morning, Marketer, may all your beach days be sunny.
August is journalism’s silly season. With so many people on vacation there can be a lull in serious, important things. (Can be. The exceptions are big: It’s the month WWI began and WWII ended.) The news is filled with strange animal sightings, state fairs serving unusual deep-fried foods – that sort of thing
The silliness started early this year with Unilever announcing the death of the Choco Taco. The public’s appetite for the story was much bigger than its appetite for the frozen treat. A Google news search turns up 12 stories from national outlets alone. (The Washington Post ran two articles on the same day.) This is the type of coverage marketers dream of.
My wife tells me people on her social media feeds are claiming it’s a marketing conspiracy. Pulling the Choco Taco from stores as a way to gin up sales via ice cream trucks. Gosh, they think we’re devious. Also, pretty dumb: Who would shut down the better sales channel? Hard to come up with data to justify a stunt like that. That said, it’s the kind of silliness of which August is made.
Constantine von Hoffman,
Managing Editor
