A clever piece of marketing !

Last night , in a simple hotel in the town of Carrick on Suir a small town make up party planner staged a coup which left all of the swish marketing agencies like Saatchi and Saatchi in her wake . For over thirty minutes she gave a good account of all of the different beautifying products which she had available for the ladies . Then , when the time came to introduce her products for the men she announced that she had a guest speaker who would introduce this range .

Those present were expecting a slightly effeminate male with a preference for ‘The soaps’ over ‘The Sopranos’ who would introduce the range of male cosmetics .

However , in a complete contrast to what was expected , up strode none other than former world number one cyclist and universally acknowledged ‘hard man’ Sean Kelly , a man who’s iconic image is more often displayed with a contorted face covered in the mud and dirt of the roads between Paris and Roubaix .

Kelly gave a seven minute oration on the benefits of using the cleansers and moisturisers on display ,some of which he actually uses himself . He also made reference to the fact that many of today’s top professionals also use these products which help counteract the damaging effects of up to seven hours per day being exposed to the harshest of weather conditions .

Yes , this truly was a stroke of genius , giving the male range an instantly more masculine appeal . Surely there is a huge lesson to be learnt by the marketing agencies here in that a genuine ‘hard man’ gives much more acceptability to these products over a pretty boy soccer player who wears a skirt !

Barry

www.worldwidecycles.com