cheech

I might've mentioned Pernod many weeks back...I bought some Pernod with the intention of doing an arty-Frenchman photoshoot. I had hoped to do some black&white pics of me smoking Gitanes and drinking Pernod and gesticulaing like I was in a Godard film. 1960s sunglasses would've helped the effect immeasurably, and I in fact have none yet.

But I got to thinking about the power of unintentional advertising. Sure, we all feel immune to blatant crass advertising...but why, in fact, had I bought a $30 bottle of Pernod? I think it was mostly due to two things: 1) Pernod showing up in Tintin books, 2) Lou ordering "Pernods.....double Pernods" on the Velvets Live at Max's Kansas City album, which is virtually the only thing I remember about it (I seem to remember the performances being a bit staid and dead too...perhaps too many double Pernods....)

The Pernod company paid not one franc for these mentions yet they were certainly compelling enough for me (at age 8 and 17) to buy the stuff.
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My questions for today:

1) Can you think of any unintentional advertising that influenced your buying habits? -- Maybe the product-placement scene in Wayne's World made you actually want a pizza or soda, or an item mentioned in a rap song gave you brand loyalty to, say, Adidas.

2) What would be a good original, not-played-out, name for a sports team? Hearing that Rice University's team was called "the Owls" this morning made me feel like Rice didn't think hard enough...they could've used plenty of rice-related names. How about the Rice Couscous? (Couscouses? Couscousi?? ...) The Rice-a-Ronis? The Rice Steamers? I can't wait for a team to be called The African Hissing Cockroaches...I would, in fact, support the building of a stupid, tax-paid eyesore traffic-nightmare-baseball-stadium in Arlington if the team was called the Washington African Hissing Cockroaches...