“Flyvertising.”

Never heard of it?  That makes sense, because as an ad medium, it is a ridiculous conceit.  According to this story on the website Adfreak, a German advertising agency promoted their publishing company at the Frankfurt Bookfair by letting loose a swarm of Fliegenbanner; small ad banners tied to the legs of house flies.  Apparently the client logo is a fly so it all makes sense…

Except it doesn’t.  It doesn’t make any sense at all.

Flies do not soar gracefully on even, steady flightpaths.  Moving, insect-sized banners are not legible to an audience.  And most people prefer their houseflies at the business end of a swatter.  Apparently at the event, the proportionally-massive banners quickly exhausted the little critters which in short order started dropping like, well, you know.  As communication, the whole thing was impractical, non-scalable, and just kind of gross.

In fact, the only way a stunt like this makes any sense at all is if people pick up on it, spreading the client’s name Eichborn to all sorts of places far beyond the Frankfort Bookfair.

Oh.  Huh.  Waitaminnit…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79