Sometimes a dog can make good marketing. It worked for Richard Nixon in 1952. When General Eisenhower ran for president he choose Richard Nixon to be his running mate. Then there were accusations of impropieties about Nixon. Ike was ready to drop Nixon from the ticket when Nixon asked for some TV time.
Nixon addressed the nation. In additional to claiming his innocence he talked about his dog Checkers. The nation fell in love with the Checkers story and Nixon stayed, to become a two-term vice president and later a one and a half term president. Checkers is truly the dog that changed the course of American history.
If you read our previous article, "Don't Follow These Five Steps" you saw that step #3 was the necessity of people being able to find you. The photo above is a truck from a pest control company that used their dog Brandon in their TV commercials. The problem was that people (myself included) could remember Brandon the dog, but not the company name, which isn't Brandon. It's Turner Pest Control. A Google search for "Brandon Pest Control" brings up an assortment of pest control companies, with Turner down the page.
The take here is that using a pet can be a very effective way to get noticed and to be remembered, but they still have to be able to find you later.
© Stephen Ghelerter, Shorty's Print and Promo 145
