Marketing vs. Car Accidents

Marketers spend millions (billions? trillions?) of dollars every year to essentially get your attention. I know this because I am personally responsible for a very tiny fraction of that amount spent.

And yet really all you need is a traffic accident to grab somebody's attention.

Every time I pass by an accident while on the road, people slow down to a crawl and gawk at what's going on on the side of the road. It's a "must-see" moment.

But put a fake accident in commercials like VW has tried doing recently, and people are totally repulsed. I don't know anybody who likes those ads... or most ads for that matter.

So how does a marketer get that traffic accident moment?

Sometimes it just happens by accident, I reckon.

All that planning and strategizing and money-spending goes completely ignored, while a quick, unplanned, violent mistake gets all the attention.

Drive safely.