With all this talk about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and all the other colors and days to which people have attached holiday meaning, I think we should test the system and start our own movement to see what happens.  Maybe reading Seth Godin’s latest book “Tribes” has gotten under my skin, or maybe it’s just the incessant media attention paid to certain holiday shopping days and the ensuing financial trends attached to them.  Whichever it is, I know there is a great deal of power in the notion of a tipping point — so I am challenging us to create one.  As a social experiment of sorts.

So, on Tuesday December 9, let’s all go out and buy scotch tape.  As in lots and lots of it. (No, they are not a client).  We’ll call it Purple Tuesday.

Stock up on all the holidays, birthdays and other occasions you plan to celebrate for the next three or four years.  Because herein lies my madness — if we create a run on scotch tape, then some pundit, some bean counter, some analyst sitting in a darkened office somewhere watching numbers blip on a computer screen, will assign some significant meaning to this uptick.  This sudden surge of scotch tape consumerism will require a reason.

And what better reason than perhaps this:  consumers are buying scotch tape because they must wrap all the many thousands of packages they have purchased as holiday gifts for family and friends.  The very idea that all these many items have been purchased and must be wrapped will signify that all is not lost this holiday season — that perhaps people really are buying stuff, and spending their money on gifts, and these gifts must be wrapped, and sealed with scotch tape, and presenting to smiling family and friends in a traditional gift exchange experience.

And voila!  We will have singlehandedly turned around  holiday retail sales when prognosticators have predicted the 2008 season would be one of the bleakest in decades.  It’s our very own stimulus package.

The nation’s retailers will thank us, including some of our agency’s clients such as Tiffany & Co., Seaport Village, Del Mar Plaza, Hazard Center and a whole lot more.

All because we bought a few cases of scotch tape.

So whaddya say?  Purple Tuesday anyone?  It couldn’t be any sillier than a Black Friday that drives people to trample and shoot each other, or Cyber/Black Monday where millions return to work to shop from their computers — instead of (gasp!) work.  Let’s see what happens.

Recent posts by Jon

• Social media a game-changer for homebuilders - June 19th, 2009
• Homebuilders on Twitter (or not) - June 16th, 2009
• Homebuilders embracing social media - June 2nd, 2009
• Client/Agency Relationships - May 27th, 2009
• Museum Marketing at its Finest - May 20th, 2009
• Economy Breeds Creative New Ad Spaces - May 18th, 2009
• Reverse mentorship assists social media training - May 12th, 2009
• Information is King in the Creative Process - May 4th, 2009
• PR Blunder: Poor planning behind Air Force One debacle - April 29th, 2009
• Celebrating our Addy Awards - March 23rd, 2009
• Bailey Gardiner Wins Big at San Diego Ad Agency Awards - March 23rd, 2009
• Union-Tribune sale announced in Twitter code - March 19th, 2009
• The Outliers - Insight, or Just Entertainment? - March 17th, 2009
• Celebrities Twitter. But Does Anyone Care? - March 10th, 2009
• Don Draper learns to twitter - February 26th, 2009
• Dr. Seuss had it going on - February 26th, 2009
• Our blog predicts brand futures - February 24th, 2009
• Amish Advertising Takes Over World - February 18th, 2009
• Confessions of a DVR-aholic - February 16th, 2009
• If Creativity Were a Color... - February 6th, 2009
• Art imitates Life imitates Art... - February 3rd, 2009
• Marketing When Consumers Aren't Buying - January 29th, 2009
• The Future of the Union-Tribune? - January 26th, 2009
• New Acura spot reminds of Yellow Submarine - January 26th, 2009
• LinkedIn is the office, Facebook is the bar - January 22nd, 2009
• Hope - January 20th, 2009
• Magazine ads spiral down - January 14th, 2009
• Brand Makeovers Reach for Lighter Days - January 12th, 2009
• 30 days of Twitter - January 7th, 2009
• Addy Awards Judges Step Up - January 7th, 2009
• Resolving to resolutions - December 30th, 2008
• Setting the tone for a great client relationship - December 19th, 2008
• Recruitment advertising - old and new - December 8th, 2008
• It's "Purple Tuesday" - shhhhh - December 1st, 2008
• Art for the artists - November 19th, 2008
• The Cost of Creativity - November 14th, 2008
• A new voice in real estate joins the blogosphere - November 5th, 2008
• Emotional bonding in the branding process - November 3rd, 2008
• Marketing in a Crazy Economy - October 27th, 2008
• The Plain Talk about Marketing Jargon - October 21st, 2008
• BG Wins Awards for PR, Blogging and Creative Design - October 17th, 2008
• The Five Pillars of Brand Management - October 10th, 2008
• Adios Direct Mail - October 6th, 2008
• We're going to Interbike - September 23rd, 2008
• Horseracing ads break for Golden Gate Fields - September 18th, 2008
• Marketing to Millenials - September 16th, 2008
• My Grandma-Influenced Career - September 11th, 2008
• Shopping Center Proud - September 2nd, 2008
• Even Stuart Elliott agrees (mostly) - August 27th, 2008
• ESPN ad shows class - August 27th, 2008