Hopefully everyone doesn't delete their bookmarks and unsubscribe from the blog's feed because of that post title (or at least the first part of it.) Several weeks ago I was driving behind a bus looking at the crammed in people when I noticed the ad on the back for a beer called "Gros Cochon." En anglais: "Fat Pig" Ok, so that got my attention. So while I swerved and nearly crashed into the cars around me trying to read the ad, it made me think about three things: 1. How companies name beers, and where's this Gros Cochon from? 2. The effectiveness of bus-marketing; and, 3. If I drink that beer will I become a fat pig? (Was that a snicker I heard somewhere?) Naming Beers and What is this Gros Cochon? I really have no expertise when it comes to "beer naming" or "beer marketing" for that matter, except for the fact that I'm a beer drinker (much less than the good old days) and if I put my mind to it, I probably could comment a bit more intelligently. But after 6 beers... I can barely find ANY information on Gros Cochon on the Internet. This frustrates the heck out of me, because this ad caught my attention. All I really found were two links of interest: Salut! The Quebec Microbrewery Cookbook Geloso Group (which I think distributes the beer in Montreal) So there's almost no information out there, but their ads are on a ton of buses. Weird. And stupid. I do like the name, although it makes me question how successful a beer that emphasizes "fat" can be. These days it's all about "light" and watching your weight. Beer has a lot of calories, so focusing on the "fat" aspect of it seems dubious. Sure, it'll get people's attention, and maybe that's all a small, microbrewery needs to squeeze out some money from it. Advertising on Buses Advertising on buses has been around for ages, it's nothing new. Lately I've seen a lot more advertising on cars and using flatbed trucks; where the entire car or truck is geared towards a product. I'm sure you've seen this sort of thing too - just the other day I saw a "Red Bull" mini cooper driving around downtown. I have no clue if advertising on a bus is effective. I'd venture a guess and say that the companies advertising on buses don't really know either. You see a lot of movie advertising (but I'm never asked, "Did you come to see the movie because you saw an ad on a bus?") so who really knows. I do know that the Gros Cochon ad caught my eye - but that's cause there was the picture of a huge pig and the name, "Fat Pig"...well, it's as if they were speaking to me. (Truth be told I'm not fat, slimming down all the time, but some of my friends do tend to refer to me as a "fat bastard"...but they're all unemployed bums, so there.) When I think about advertising on buses (or cars) I think that it's the kind of thing that could be effective for IGotNewsForYou. Why? Mostly because it's an easy URL to remember, fairly catchy and I think it would intrigue people if they saw it on a billboard. "You've got news for me? Really? Well I like news, and I like me...so let's go take a look!" Of course, advertising on a bus or through a billboard would be way too expensive, but the same style of advertising exists online (be it through banners, which research still shows most people ignore), text links, etc. Advertising is inevitable for almost every business (unless it goes completely viral without it), so the question then becomes, "What's the best form of advertising, and where should I put it?" That's a question I'll have to investigate at another time...I need a beer... (Technorati Tags: advertising, beer, gros cochon) P.S. Since I couldn't find the Gros Cochon logo anywhere, I created my own picture of a pig drinking a beer. That pig (to my knowledge) has never consumed alcohol, and was certainly never given beer from me.