FORGET BILLBOARDS to push furniture and mattresses in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Instead, try guerrilla gorilla marketing.
Hire someone to dress in a hot pink gorilla costume. Station the ape at the corner of a crazy busy intersection (Northland Avenue and North 47) and you’re good to go.
Tell me, does this type of gimmick really work?
Copyright 2014 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
WHEN TRAVELING THROUGH RURAL MINNESOTA, and anywhere for that matter, my husband and I rely on good old paper maps and atlases to navigate in unfamiliar territory. Yes, we are old-fashioned that way, without GPS or smart phones.
We also count on signage to get us to specific destinations. Rural areas offer creative home-spun signs so I’m always scouting for eye-catching signage worthy of photographing.
En route to extreme southwestern Minnesota this past summer, I spotted signage for two businesses in the Vernon Center area, along Highway 169 south of Mankato.
First, the Vernon Center Market:
Photographed this summer near Vernon Center.
There are several reasons I like this sign. Right off, the steer graphic catches my eye and tells me, without reading a single word, that this advertises a meat market. Second, the arrow tells me exactly where I’ll find the Vernon Center Market. Across from the Ball Park. Perfect. So small-townish. I also appreciate that business hours are listed, although I doubt a motorist would catch that while driving by.
And then there’s Pumpkinland, also near Vernon Center:
Pumpkinland near Vernon Center.
You can’t miss the sprawling sign, painted in a readable font. And the graphics are limited to pumpkins. Simple. Clutter-free. Quick to get the necessary business information out there.
And great for a passing photographer to photograph from the passenger side of a moving van.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
I MAY HAVE MISSED attending the Stevens County Fair in Morris when I was in this western Minnesota community for a family reunion this past weekend.
But I didn’t miss this kitschy piece of fair advertising positioned on the corner of the Family Dollar parking lot downtown.
I expect most of the locals are so used to seeing this mini Ferris wheel rolled out every summer that they think nothing of it. However, as an outsider and one who appreciates such homegrown creativity, this certainly caught my attention.
My two regrets are these:
That I could not attend the fair because, even though I am not a fan of tromping around a fairgrounds among a crowd of people, I expect this rural fair would have appealed to me.
I did not see this Ferris wheel brightened by the holiday lights attached to the frame. In my mind’s eye, I can visualize the Christmas bulbs popping with color in the fading prairie sunset.
THAT ALL SAID, if any current or former Stevens County residents can enlighten me as to the history of this homemade Ferris wheel, please share. Who made it, when, has it always been parked downtown…?
And what about the fair itself? What do you love about the Stevens County Fair?
For the rest of you readers, did/will you attend a county fair this summer? Let’s hear.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
VACUUM CLEANERS AND ROSES seem an unlikely pair. But for long-time Waseca businessmen and friends, Rick Morris and Charlie Mathern, pairing the two has become a pre-Valentine’s Day tradition that began some 20 years ago when Rick noticed Charlie had vacuum cleaners on sale.
Rick, owner of Waseca Floral, suggested he pitch flowers and Charlie, owner of Charlie’s Hardware, push vacuums in a joint half-page print ad with this long-standing lead-in:
On Valentine’s Day, Charlie & Rick say—Sweep her off her feet! Vacuum Cleaner?…or Roses?
Then the fun began as each tried to persuade potential customers, via poetry, to choose a vacuum over roses or roses over a vacuum. This year’s ad, published February 5 in The Waseca Area Shopper, features these poems, among others:
Charlie:
Thorny roses? Fussy violets?
Wow her with flowers and you’ll be the pilot
Rick:
Roses are the language of Lust
Vacuums are the prattle of so much dust
This shows all but the bottom portion of the 2013 print ad.
The back-and-forth bantering continues amid photos of vacuums intermixed with red poetry hearts on the left side of the ad and images of floral arrangements interspersed with poetry hearts on the right.
The valentine ad has always been about vacuums and flowers.
And, clearly, it’s also about fun.
“We just get silly with them (the poems),” says Ann Mathern, Charlie’s wife and the author of Charlie’s vacuum cleaner poetry. “The crazier, the better. I don’t know if we can call this poetry.”
Rick concurs: “I write a couple of lines at a time. It’s not exactly poetry.” He pulls out a blank sheet of paper and, in a few hours or less, pens floral-themed couplets like:
She wants roses, there is no doubt
Give her a vacuum and she may throw you out
Ann, a first grade teacher, meanwhile, sits at her computer and, in about 45 minutes, centers her eight rhyming poems around whatever vacuums Charlie is trying to sell:
Come on—admit it—flowers in a vase
Can’t compete with a Sebo, they’ll never keep pace
Rick Morris, owner of Waseca Floral for 40 years. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo, February 2012.
The poetry/sales competition gets exactly the results Rick and Charlie want—attention, laughter and sales. “People look for it (the ad),” Rick says, and will mention the ad when they purchase Valentine’s Day flowers.
Likewise, down at the hardware store, the ad generates sales. But it also sparks the occasional call from female customers angry about suggesting a vacuum cleaner as a Valentine’s Day gift, Ann Mathern says.
Charlie, who fields those sometimes unhappy calls, explains that the Valentine’s Day ad is all in good fun by mutual agreement with his good friend Rick. Occasionally Rick and Charlie need to remind themselves of that, especially when they read some of the barbed poetry.
Rick:
Flowers are beautiful and oh so sublime
Vacuums are ugly and filled with grime
Charlie:
Your honey might settle for a pretty bouquet
But she’d choose a Hoover if she could have her way
Flowers pack a cooler for Valentine’s Day 2012 in this Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo from Waseca Floral.
No matter what’s written, Rick and Charlie take it all in good humor. After 30-plus years of friendship and eating breakfast together between 6:30 – 7 every morning except Wednesday (when Rick has bible study) at various Waseca cafes, they know each other well, even sharing the same dry sense of humor, Rick says. Their wives, Ann and Sheila, join them for breakfast on Fridays.
Just like the daily breakfast tradition, Rick expects he’ll continue publishing the joint flowers versus vacuums ad with Charlie as long as the two are in business and he and Ann can keep writing their so-called poetry.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Disclaimer: My sister, Lanae, is a floral designer at Waseca Floral. That did not influence my decision to write this post. I know a great story when I see/hear one.
IN THE PAST YEAR, I’ve begun to really pay attention to billboards. Prior to this, I viewed these mega ads primarily as visual clutter.
A string of billboards near Alexandria, photographed while driving eastbound back to Faribault along Interstate 94.
But now this open air, in-your-face advertising has evolved into a diversion from a long and weary journey along a familiar route. For me, that tedious trip has been the 600-mile round trip to and from Fargo, North Dakota, four times since February. (Our son attends North Dakota State University.)
At first the drive was interesting. I haven’t traveled all that often across this region of Minnesota along Interstate 94.
Abandoned stone house along I94 near Avon.
Now, though, I am so familiar with the sites that I can tell you exactly where to find the abandoned stone house I wish would be restored (near Avon),
Freeport, “The city with a smile!” is marked by this smiling water tower.
…the location of the vintage smiley-faced water tower (Freeport)
The most entertaining of all the billboards along Interstate 94 between Faribault and Fargo is this one for Kentucky Fried Chicken just west of Alexandria. Seriously, I’d like to see anyone dragging this billboard coupon into KFC.
…and even where you will spot a particularly interesting billboard coupon (Alexandria).
The billboards along I-94 from Monticello west begin to draw my eye as the land eases from urban to rural. They are a diversion, markers of towns and cities along the route and a source of entertainment and, sometimes, amusement.
I totally cannot tell you the exact location of this billboard for Zorbaz on the Lake along I-94. But the “pregnant burrito…a bundle of joy” slogan just does not work for me. But I suppose since I noticed the message, the billboard is effective.
What is it about these restaurant advertisers? A sub as big as a billboard? Oh, yeah, read the small print. Snapped this sign near Melrose/Albany.
Just east of Fargo/Moorhead, you know you’re in farming country. And, yes, I counted all 14 insects on this billboard.
Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
WHY, OH, WHY didn’t I think of this? Someone submitted the L & M Bar & Grill “free beer with breakfast” coupon, the one I posted about here on October 25, to NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
The coupon was featured in Leno’s Monday night, November 5, “Headlines” monologue. You can view the piece by clicking here. Note that the Dundas bar coupon is highlighted near the end of the clip.
One of two coupons published in Rice County Coupon Connection. I’ve voided this free beer coupon.
Here’s what Leno had to say when he placed the coupon on display before the television camera:
OK, OK, this is when you know you have a drinking problem. L & M Bar & Grill. Free beer with purchase of breakfast. OK, if you’re drinking at breakfast…
So what’s the story behind that coupon and what has been the reaction to “The Tonight Show” exposure at L & M Bar in tiny Dundas, which is just south of Northfield? Well, I phoned manager Pauline Koester this morning to get some answers.
Pauline used words like “cool,” “awesome” and “way to go” to describe her reaction and that of customers to Leno’s inclusion of the coupon.
“How often do you hit national television?” she said. “That’s pretty rare.”
She was shocked to learn of the national exposure via Facebook, Pauline says, but is pleased with the advertising for the bar her father, Lyle Koester, owns. Reaction has been only positive, she added.
So how did the manager come up with this “free beer with the purchase of breakfast” idea at a place that serves breakfast only in the mornings, from 7 a.m. – 11 a.m. weekdays and Saturdays and from 8:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. Sundays?
Well, on a recent visit from her newspaper advertising rep, Pauline blurted, “Throw in a beer for breakfast.” The bar often offers a free beverage or drink “with purchase of,” she explained. And so two coupons offering “free beer with purchase of breakfast ($4.50 or more)” were printed in the Rice County Coupon Connection book distributed recently with the Faribault Daily News and the Northfield News.
The impromptu beer and breakfast coupon idea was an effort to boost breakfast sales among third shift factory and healthcare workers who like to have a beer before going to bed, Pauline said.
Thus far only a few free beer coupons have been redeemed. They expire on November 30, 2012, and on January 31, 2013.
Pauline’s curious, as are her customers, and me, about who sent the L & M Bar free beer coupon to Leno.
She’s contemplating sending a thank you—an L & M Bar & Grill coffee cup with a free beer coupon.
Now…if Leno shows up at the Dundas bar to redeem that coupon, wouldn’t that be something.
© Text copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Edited coupon from Rice County Coupon Connection
SITTING IN THE RECLINER the other night perusing a coupon book recently inserted in my local newspaper, the Faribault Daily News, I came upon this deal from L & M Bar & Grill in downtown Dundas, just south of Northfield:
I taped the word “VOID” across this coupon so you cannot use it.
I turned to my husband, informed him of the beer deal and said something like, “Can you believe this?/They must have made a mistake./Are you kidding, beer for breakfast?”
Breakfast is served at L& M from 7 – 11 a.m. Monday – Saturday and from 8:30 – 11 a.m. on Sunday.
What’s your take on this coupon, this offer of free beer with purchase of breakfast?
AS RICK MORRIS TELLS the story, he and his friend Charlie Mathern were having breakfast together some 20 years ago shortly before Valentine’s Day when they got the idea.
The two discussed partnering in print advertising. It seemed an unlikely match—Rick being in the floral business and Charlie in the hardware store business, both in Waseca.
But they hatched a plan to pit vacuum cleaners against flowers in a Valentine’s Day promotion. Charlie said he’d put his Hoovers on sale. Rick would advertise his flowers.
Twenty years later, they’re still at it, publishing a joint half-page ad in a recent issue of the Waseca Area Shopper that promises the perfect Valentine’s Day gift:
On Valentine’s Day, Charlie & Rick say—Sweep her off her feet! Vacuum Cleaner?…or Roses?
And then, in heart-shaped speech bubbles of poetic rhyme, Rick of Waseca Floral and Charlie of Charlie’s Hardware, push their product.
Charlie:
As you well know
violets are purple
and roses have thorns.
If she doesn’t get a Hoover
she’ll be truly forlorn!
Rick:
The Valentine gift of a vacuum is awful.
A beautiful bouquet of flowers is thoughtful!
Charlie:
Flowers demand your time and care.
So give her a Hoover to see love in the air!
Rick:
Giving a vacuum is utterly stupid.
Your sweetheart should get flowers from Cupid.
The back-and-forth bantering continues amid photos of vacuums intermixed with red hearts on the left side of the ad and images of floral arrangements interspersed with hearts on the right.
Says poet/businessman Rick of his and Charlie’s Valentine’s Day ad partnership: “It’s always been about vacuum cleaners and flowers.”
Nearly the entire half-page Valentine's Day print ad Rick and Charlie ran this year.
DISCLOSURE: My sister, Lanae, is employed by Waseca Floral. But that in no way influenced my decision to write this post. I learned about this 20-year ad partnership while photographing Valentine’s Day preparations at Waseca Floral. I know a great story when I hear one. And, in my opinion, this rates as one of those interesting and humorous small-town stories that needs to be shared.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
LET’S TALK ADVERTISING TODAY.
First off, how many of you watched the Super Bowl? How many of you were more interested in the commercials than in the big game?
I could care less about the game. But the ads interest me. I didn’t see all of them, but I caught enough to be unimpressed.
I’d give “the best” award to the Doritos ad where an adorable baby rockets to snatch a bag of snacks and then munches on the chips alongside a smiling grandma. The ad was cute, memorable and I got it. I don’t always understand the commercials.
Teleflora gets my “the worst” ad distinction for its pure sex-infused commercial featuring an alluring woman encouraging men to give flowers for Valentine’s Day. “Give and you shall receive,” she purrs. “She” happens to be famous Brazilian model Adriana Lima.
Seriously, Teleflora marketing people, do not insult women by airing ads like this.
Also, and this really, truly, absolutely bugs me. A few years ago we bailed out the auto makers. Yet, they have millions of dollars to spend on Super Bowl advertising. What gives here?
Speaking of car ads, I didn’t like the Hyundai ad with the cheetah attacking a man. It reminds me too much of those animal-pursuing-animal/survival-of-the-fittest television documentaries.
A snippet from the new jcp print ad. Bold, bright and hip, wouldn't you agree?
OK, now lest you think I’m oozing negativity today, let’s turn our attention to retailer jcp, which I know as Penneys. The department store is making big changes, most noticeable to me in the magazine style advertising insert tucked inside my local daily newspaper on Super Bowl Sunday.
Changes were inevitable with former Apple executive Ron Johnson now serving as the new jcp CEO. And might I add, changes were needed to update the image of a retailer that seems more suited to my 79-year-old mother, or me, than to my 20-something daughters. I don’t really ever hear my daughters talk about shopping at Penneys. Typically they gravitate toward the more hip Target.
But it’s obvious, from the print and television ads I’ve seen, that jcp is trying to draw a younger, hipper crowd. Their new ads are crisp, clean, bold, bright and packed with motion.
Even more important, the company is eliminating those continual sales promotion mailings. Finally.
Instead of the previous complicated, ongoing, ever-changing sales system, the company is switching to a “fair and square” approach of everyday lower prices, month-long values and first and third Friday mark-downs. It all still sounds a bit too complicated. But anything has to be better than the previous marketing strategy.
So there you have it—my take on the world of advertising on Super Bowl Sunday.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? Give me your input on the Super Bowl commercials and/or on jcp’s new approach to marketing and sales? I’d like to hear what you think, even if your take differs from mine.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive.
WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children.
WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease.
WARNING: Cigarettes cause cancer.
WARNING: Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease.
WARNING: Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby.
WARNING: Smoking can kill you.
WARNING: Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers.
WARNING: Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.
I didn't need to search long or hard to find these cigarette butts. Two were tossed into one of my flowerbeds by a neighbor. I found the third in the street by my house.
Just as Minnesota legislators are considering proposed changes to the state’s Freedom to Breathe law, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is finalizing plans to modify warnings on cigarette packaging and advertising.
Following requirements of The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the FDA has proposed that cigarette packaging and ads bear one of the above nine warnings along with a matching colorful graphic.
The shock value of the proposed graphics—like a toe-tagged corpse and a mother blowing smoke into her baby’s face—are an effort to make a powerful impact on the smoking public. Enough to make a smoker stop smoking.
The final graphics will be selected by June 22 and the warnings must be in place on all cigarette packages sold in the U.S. and in cigarette ads by October 2012.
As a nonsmoker, I’m all for this move to prevent, reduce or stop smoking.
However, I don’t support proposed legislation in Minnesota that would once again allow smoking in bars under specific conditions. Not that I frequent bars, but bars and restaurants are often interconnected, so this matters to me.
The plan basically would allow smoking in bars if a ventilation system is installed to remove the smoke. In bars connected to restaurants, the bar must be walled off with a door separating the bar and restaurant.
Come on. A door will not keep smoke from filtering into a restaurant. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t need smoke served with my meal.
I make no apologies for my strong stand against smoking and my intense dislike of cigarette smoke.
I’m also honest enough to admit that, in my youth, I tried tobacco products on several occasions, enough to realize smoking wasn’t for me.
My dad became addicted to cigarettes when he was in the military, serving on the front lines during the Korean Conflict. He preferred Camel cigarettes. Sometimes he also rolled his own.
My dad, a smoker for many years, first exposed me to cigarettes. Once he even let me puff on his Camel. Now before you start calling him an irresponsible parent, consider this. He knew I’d cough and sputter and spit and never want to touch a cigarette again. He was right. Eventually he gave up smoking but never quit chewing snuff.
Although I never took up smoking, I was addicted to candy cigarettes as a kid. But candy cigarettes were as popular as Bazooka bubble gum back in the 1960s and no one thought anything of subtly encouraging kids to smoke via those chalky white sticks with the red tips.
As for the few Swisher cigars I smoked in my mid-20s, I offer no excuse except my ignorant, youthful stupidity. I bet many smokers who are now habitual tobacco users wish they’d never started.
If you’re a smoker and want to smoke in the privacy of your home, then go ahead. Just don’t invite me over because, physically, I can’t tolerate cigarette smoke. I’ve had numerous bad experiences with cigarette smoke.
Back in the early 1980s, I worked for a southern Minnesota daily newspaper that allowed smoking in the office. I came home every night smelling like I’d been in a bar all day. My clothes reeked. My skin reeked. My hair reeked. I remember complaining, with several other nonsmokers in the office, about the smoking. Nothing changed, because the news editor smoked. She didn’t care. So what if the copy editor sat outside the conference room during the weekly staff meeting because he couldn’t tolerate the smoke? I wish I had joined him instead of breathing the toxic air. So what if the news editor should have been more considerate given the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act passed in 1975? None of that mattered.
My second worst experience with smoking occurred several years ago at a Winona hotel. The manager tried to pass off a smoking room as a nonsmoking room. The instant I walked into the room, I smelled cigarette smoke. The mobile air purifier that was running on high and the lack of a sign on the door stating that this was a nonsmoking room confirmed my suspicions. When I went to the front desk and demanded a nonsmoking room, the manager denied that he had given me a smoking room. I didn’t believe him. My nose and lungs don’t lie.
My other notable smoke experience also involves a hotel, this one at a southwestern Minnesota casino. I was there attending a cousin’s wedding reception. Although the hotel room my family booked was supposedly smoke-free, the odor of cigarette smoke filtered from the smoke-filled hotel lobby, halls and casino into our room. I barely slept that night because of the tightness in my chest caused by the smoke.
So, Minnesota legislators, listen up. Listen to representatives of The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and Clearway Minnesota, all of whom have been at the State Capitol opposing the proposed changes to Minnesota’s Freedom to Breathe Act.
Consider the 83.9 percent of adult Minnesotans (according to results of the 2010 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey) who do not smoke. Please keep our Freedom to Breathe Act intact and smoke-free.
© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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