Howard Davidson from Arlington Massachusetts is marketing guy who helps brands connect with target audiences. Howard Davidson writes about about advertising, social media and marketing with a touch of sarcasm, including this blog about how Mr. Sketch is using farts to sell markers howarddavidsonarlingtonma.com

1. Mr. Sketch Using Farts to Sell
Markers
by
Howard Davidson, Arlington, MA
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

2. I guess it’s true. Flatulence sells,
Umm… Mr. Sketch is using farts to
sell markers.
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

3. Forgive me. Gotta stoop to potty talk. I
blame the Sanford office and
stationery products division of Newell
Rubbermaid. Sophomoric as it may
be, their Mr. Sketch brand is using fart
jokes to sell their scented markers.
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

4. Fruit farts. That’s the hot air that Mr. Sketch
is blowing on consumers in their ridiculous
new campaign. The 30-second spot from BBH
New York posits that the markers’ scents are
a product of ‘green gas’ or ‘violet vapors.’ I
really want to light a match to this one.
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

5. The ad shows a blueberry cutting the
cheese, with the scent going directly into
the tip of a Mr. Sketch marker. Talk
about honesty in advertising! I despise
anything scented, and it’s not at all a
stretch for me to believe that flatulence
played a role in the development of
these markers.
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

6. The spot may get a cheap laugh from kids
and jokers young and old, but will likely
receive a roll of the eyes from a rather
mature crowd who thinks their stuff doesn’t
stink. Advertising to kids is great in the right
circumstances, but I don’t know any kids who
care what brand their markers are. They just
want markers, period. However, a marker
that smells like a fart in a classroom will
make any elementary school dude into the
big man on campus (or send him to the
principal’s office).
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

7. Mr. Sketch hasn’t done any advertising for
nearly 20 years, and this spot reeks of a
brand that never matured past
adolescence. Think about what this ad
posits at its core. They’re using toilet
humor to advertise a product which claims
to smell good. Anyone else seeing the
disconnect here?
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

8. BBH New York claims that the farting
blueberry ad tested better than any other
concept they came up with. I can only
imagine the sort of alternatives which would
pale in comparison to flatulent fruit. Must
have been a heck of a day at the idea factory!
The markers themselves draw rave reviews
from consumers, but this spot gets a thumbs-down
from me.
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

9. I usually dismiss toilet humor as a cheap,
lowest-common-denominator tactic, and I’m
not making any exceptions today. Mr. Sketch
has been out of the public eye for two
decades. Maybe they should have stayed
there until they came up with a better way to
reintroduce themselves. Something stinks.
But it could be the smell of sales.
Howard Davidson Arlington MA
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA

10. I usually dismiss toilet humor as a cheap,
lowest-common-denominator tactic, and I’m
not making any exceptions today. Mr. Sketch
has been out of the public eye for two
decades. Maybe they should have stayed
there until they came up with a better way to
reintroduce themselves. Something stinks.
But it could be the smell of sales.
Howard Davidson Arlington MA
Slide By :- Howard Davidson Arlington MA