It remains to be seen how many editors and reporters will be wearing these T-shirts on their summer beach excursions, but The Benjamin Group Inc. came up with one of the most clever PR moves we've seen in the past few weeks.
With a price tag under $3,000, The Benjamin Group mailed out 80 T-shirts to trade journalists for its Fujitsu No Excuses warranty campaign. (San Jose, Calif.-based Fujitsu makes peripheral products, like scanners and storage products, for the computer industry.)
Among the journalists receiving the T-shirts were PC World, Imaging World and our sister publication Document Imaging Report.
The front of the shirt is emblazoned with the top five excuses - like "Can you call me back in 10 minutes?" and "Sorry, I have an interview with Bill Gates at 10 a.m." - given by editorial types.
And the back (you guessed it) highlights the top five excuses given by those in PR, including these doozies: "Sorry, our customers prefer to remain anonymous" and "That's funny.our demo worked at the last interview."
Granted, they're not haute couture, but they're memorable and honest.
"We wanted to raise awareness that this is more than a warranty program," said Ellen Roeckl, VP of The Benjamin Group. "We came up with the idea several months ago and then we held a brainstorming session with about 10 people across all the agency's accounts to get their input."
Roeckl said the plan was to roll out the campaign, which was announced two weeks ago at PC Expo in New York, and then follow up with a mass mailing of the T-shirts to keep journalists locked in on the story. (Benjamin Group, 408/559-6090)