Indians OFF the Yankees

Picture this: You're the Chief Marketing Officer for SC Johnson or the brand manager for OFF insect repellent. It was a long week at work, but now it's Friday night and you can't wait to get home because you have no plans but to sit down on the couch, relax, and watch some playoff baseball. The Yankees/Indians game is a great one, a pitching duel that keeps you on the edge of your seat. You go to the fridge to get a beer after the Yankees bat in the eighth. When you come back you can't believe your eyes; there are bugs all over the field, all over the players. What is going on? Then it happens. The Yankees trainer comes out of the dugout carrying YOUR PRODUCT and all the players line up to get a spray.

The announcers are saying "OFF" repeatedly and you can't believe your eyes and ears. This is your chance for the whole world to see what a great product it is - it will literally save the game! But wait, are they using the right OFF? And will it work? Maybe that last piece of pizza wasn't such a great idea...

Well, after the first application of OFF, the bugs were still all over Joba Chamberlain. When the trainers came out again they basically doused his cap in the stuff and still they were all over him. My personal favorite was all the dead bugs collected on his neck. You could really see them in serious detail in HD.

I was sitting on my own couch watching when I thought of the scenario described above and now I wonder what s/he is thinking today. The best possible outcome would have been for the repellent to create a bubble of protection that you would have been able to see on television. Yes, there are a ton of bugs swarming around here, but they're not getting within a foot of A-Rod! OFF has saved the game! What great footage for a future commercial... Instead, it didn't really look like it was working. (Side note: maybe the trainers weren't using the "right" OFF - a brief look at the SC Johnson website reveals there are no less than 20 different OFF products! Who knows which was the right one for these little pests called midges?) The bugs were in the players faces, eyes and who knows where else. The incident definitely changed the game; the Yankees were up 1-0 before it happened then in that inning gave up the tying run and went on to lose in extra innings.

I know some are asking, did anyone but you notice this? Do they really care? Well, maybe and maybe not. But I truly believe consumers make most of their choices subconsciously and that picture is one most people watching that game won't forget. The question is: next time they go to buy insect repellent, will that scene play through their minds and which product will they choose?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2007/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=3051291