Small Business Marketing: Influentia

Man takes fastball in groin, makes millions

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Every company would love to have a viral marketing campaign as successful as Blendtec, with their "Will it Blend?" videos where they show their powerful blenders destroying everything from marbles to iPhones, but I'd have to say Nutty Buddy has come close.

The company, founded by ex-MLB pitcher Mark Littell, has done a great job of marketing a product that really proves its value and is entertaining at the same time.  And Littell literally stands behind his product:

"Let’s get the CEO of every cup company. You put your cup on, and I’ll put my cup on, and we’ll see who’s left standing."

Don't think he's serious? Check out the video of him taking a fastball right in the undercarriage without flinching.

Between this video and their well-targeted tagline, "Protecting the boys", I have a feeling Littell will be selling quite a few of these baseball cups.

More on the Nutty Buddy.

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Doping Until Proven Innocent

Note: This blog has moved! For continued updates about small business marketing, visit my new blog Manizesto, or subscribe to the Manizesto feed.

Today the NY Times reports that Michael Rasmussen, the current leader in this year's Tour de France, has missed (not failed) two drug tests recently and so faces being banned from the sport for two years if he misses or fails another.

Doping in cycling has been a problem for many years, of course, drawing major attention in 1967 after Tom Simpson died climbing Mount Ventoux after having used amphetamines, but has made national headlines again recently with the recent flood of failed drug tests by some of the stars of the sport (More here, here and here).

So, why does doping continue? There are a few possibilities:

• Having a doping scandal increases discussion of the Tour and keeps people thinking about it more often, increasing it's overall popularity. This reasoning was echoed by many early PR folks whose motto was "Any PR is Good PR." With high ratings, the International Cycling Union (UCI) has little motivation to intervene.


• As I have discussed previously with other sports, it's clearly still worth it to the athletes to cheat because the penalties are not severe enough. Why not give a two year suspension after one missed drug test, not three? With current rules, Rasmussen may have been able to use performance enhancing drugs for weeks or months before the Tour began (assuming he didn't pass tests intermittently between missing the others).
  


• Fans have shown, for the most part, to still be fans of athletes even after allegations or proof of doping have arisen. Bonds is a perfect example. Again, the UCI has little motivation to change anything as long as the sport remains popular.

Increasing testing probably won't work, and even if it did curb the doping problem, what would that do to the level of trust the UCI shows towards the cyclists? Or since a few have violated, should they all be considered "Doping until proven innocent?"