#1063 Advance Ad-vice

So the other day I was walking around a development of the fairly well-to-do. As I walked, I began to notice this unusual thing in the middle of the entrance to each house’s driveway. It was placed precisely in the middle too, as if the placer had been anxious to distinguish it from a random piece of litter.
But still, litter it was. My mind began to run through the rage cycle associated with the weekly abomination from our local paper that they hurl into my yard each week and that I am then forced to recycle and remove. The Hot Ticket perpetrators still annoy me, and by extension, the folks that advertise in their monstrosity. What is the difference between their rolled up newspaper ad and litter?
Nothing. At least the mailbox stuffers pay to place their stuff.
Advertising rule number one: Don’t annoy the potential customer.
The colors on the rolled up thing looked not unlike those I associate with Watchtower, so I first thought it was a new missionary missive method for the Jehovah Witnesses. Perhaps actually ringing doorbells got too dangerous, especially for the children they often drag around with them to witness the process.
I finally picked one up from the driveway of a large three-story home with pillars and natural rock and other luxury accouterments. And it turned out to be something I never would have expected—A brochure for Advance America Check Cashing Services.
Now here’s the thing. The person that did this also included her card in the brochure. She also rolled each brochure neatly and secured it with a multiply-looped rubber band. Then she went all over this neighborhood precisely placing these things in the middle of each driveway entrance.
All that time and effort—for the wrong target customer. The thrust of the brochure was they were targeting people who had trouble handling a checking account. Had she looked at the homes at the end of each driveway she was littering, she may have deduced the owners managed money okay.
Advertising rule number 2: If you’re going to personalize your ad distribution, make sure it’s to the right person.
America, ya gotta love it.