You guys might remember a previous blog posting where I discussed anti-ad-campaigns, and how marketers were analyzing sub-culture trends to empower influencers to market for them.

Well, here’s another one for you. It seems marketers have recently turned to asking consumers to tattoo themselves with their logos and taglines. Sometimes these consumers are accepting pay, but other times, as you’ll read, they’re merely doing it in trade for goods and services. Note the one guy that gets a Dunlop tat for a set of free tires - yikes!

Here’s the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21979076/

As someone that considers himself as a student of brand communications, I take a bit of a different view of this article. I think one of the inherent benefits that marketers have to consider when they partake in this type of marketing strategy is that consumers start to see how powerful their brand is. They look at a human being that is such a brand evangelist that they will endure the pain and permanence of a branded tattoo and think to themselves, “wow, that must be a great brand if they’re willing to do that.”

I think that’s a really powerful statement. Perhaps even moreso than the actual impressions…

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com