The Big Fat Marketing Blog

David Beckham, who was supposed to bring marketing buzz to Major League Soccer in the U.S., made a distinctly ungracious exit last week on his way to play for A.C. Milan for three months on loan, saying he was looking forward to getting back to playing “real football” again.

When Beckham gleefully accepted a five-year, $250 million deal last year to play for the L.A. Galaxy, he was heralded as brightest international star of a league that’s desperately looking for respect. No one’s going to confuse the level of play in the MSL to Italy’s top-flight Serie A, but Beckham - who’s also collecting $1 million in endorsements here in the colonies - didn’t really need to reiterate the point.

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Pizza Hut is getting YouTube views with a video that shows a guy ordering takeout from the chain—while sitting inside a small independent pizza shop. The video, made by a production company called Mediocre Films in a deal brokered by a third party firm according to www.ViralBlog.com, shows a guy getting “Kicked Out of a Pizza Place” for sitting in various local pizza joints and enjoying a hot slice of a Pizza Hut pie before getting thrown out. Once, told to leave by the owner, he even has the crust to ask if he can take some of the condiments.

The video has been garnering views since it first showed up on YouTube on Dec. 10. To date, it’s been seen close to 300,000 times, favorited about 4,300 and rated almost as often.

But is this an instance of going viral simply for the sake of being viral? It doesn’t seem likely that the video will have a big effect on either Pizza Hut’s sales or brand identity. more

I ran into a good post asking does “satisfaction guaranteed” mean anything today? I guess some guy tried to sue his dry cleaner for $54,000,000 because they lost a pair of his pants and had a sign that read “satisfaction guaranteed” in the place. Must have been a really nice pair of trousers.

For years companies like LL Bean, Lands’ End, Omaha Steaks and other well known names have relied on satisfying their customers. The guarantee helps direct marketers be more credible and sell more stuff. Personally, if my dry cleaner lost my pants, I’d ask him for $5 bucks.