SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I’m a very good looking girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I’ll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Call (404) 875-6420 and ask for Daisy, I’ll be waiting…
If I told you that this ad got almost 350 phone calls a day, would you consider it a good ad?
Of course, you may have heard about this one – the punch line is that the phone number takes you to the Atlanta Humane Society, and the ‘Single Black Female’ is a black Labrador pup named Daisy!
Since I’m writing about business, I had to ask myself – was the ad worth it? After all, we’ve often heard about ads that start with ‘Sex – Now That I Have Your Attention…’. Just how effective was the Humane Society’s ad?
So I did some research. And found out a big problem – there never was a Daisy, there was never a personal ad placed from the Atlanta Humane Society – in fact, this is an urban legend.
But that’s not to say the ad wasn’t effective. Whenever it surfaces, men call. And despite the punchline given in the ad, men still telephone – on one occasion about 650 over two days.
So let’s ignore that the ad was fake for a moment, and focus on the results, which were real. First off, it got attention using sex. And it was popular – several hundred calls a day (and not coincidentally, the Atlanta Humane Society no longer uses that number).
If you’d listed an ad like that, you’d have gotten a great response. Unfortunately, you’d have to handle over 300 phone calls a day to do it – which would waste a person’s time for most of the day.
And don’t forget that the men would be very annoyed. Getting people angry is a sure prescription for a P.R. disaster – and angry lovelorn men are even worse. Obviously, this ad was not a ‘best of breed’.
So why mention it?
Because there are people who really try ads like that – and for the few sales they get, the bad blood will likely hamper future sales efforts. Of course, some people like to make a sale and move on (and burn their bridges), but for most of us, building a relationship with each customer is the key to growth – and gimmicky ads just won’t cut it.
So although there seems to be no Daisy, her plea for a companion can still give us a few pointers about how not to write an ad.
(If you want to know more about the Daisy story, an excellent article is found here at the ‘Urban Legends Reference Pages’)
