I grew up on Old Route 66, so I suppose road trips run through my veins. And I don’t think it is coincidence that I am somewhat of a visual thinker … Ha … probably influenced by all that overexposure to the artwork of Route 66. The billboards, the Indian teepees and the curio shops (for souvenirs).
My favorite? It’s what I call a “progressive billboard.” Ever see one of those series of signs on the side of the road, staggered at 1/10-of-a-mile intervals?: “Gas Ahead,” “Cactus Jelly,””Rattlesnake Head Pillows” “Texas-Size Cigars,”Onyx Chess Sets,” “Real Arrowheads” …
I love those. When driving by, I always find myself accelerating to get to the next sign, to see what possibly might top “Armadillo Flip Flops.”
So influenced by this method of advertising, I used the same strategy at my very first press conference as a travel blogger. For my first blog, I did some interviews outside Amarillo, Texas at the world famous Cadillac Ranch — the tribute to all road trips, near the “Mother of All Roads” … old Route 66.
As I prepared for the press conference, I placed large 5X5 poster cards on the side of the road, tied to a rancher’s barbed wire fence. Each of these bulletin boards had a single letter, visible to the thousands of cars and trucks that pass the Cadillac Ranch in any given hour.
The letters spelled out the name of my first blog: W-I-F-I G-U-Y dot C-O-M, promoting the travel tales of The Wi-Fi Guy.
In addition to the media hits, there were visitors too … mainly people who stopped to see The Cadillac Ranch … and a few who grabbed my free hamburgers, cooked by nephew on his trailer-size barbecue smoker.
(This, my second blog launched with a press conference hosted by San Francisco International Airport, and their huge Wi-Fi hotspot. No graffiti, I promise.)
PingWi-Fi Press Conference At SFO
Anyway … it was a pretty good visual stunt for the truckers, giving them even more to talk about on their CB radios and/or wireless devices.
BUT … it was not the best visual I have ever seen at The Cadillac Ranch. Ha! If you have followed either one of my blogs, you know I stop to shoot the Cadillacs every chance I get.
Well, one year, I did a photo shoot of The Cadillac Ranch, with its “curator” Stanley Marsh 3, the millionaire who along with California art group The Ant Farm, planted the cars. It was the second time I interviewed SM3, this time for a cover story I wrote for Texas Weekly.
If you have read about or seen The Cadillac Ranch, you know they are ever-changing. Everyone stops and spraypaints their name or marriage date, or whatever on the cars. The layers of paint are so thick, you can cut and pull the plastic-like covering off the metal in sheets.
But, on this particular day for the SM3 photo shoot, someone had painted the entire sculpture — all 10 Caddies were bright red, from dirt to sky.
(Sidenote: I didn’t see it, but I read that when one of the members of The Ant Farm died, all the Cadillacs were painted black in mourning. That’s pretty awesome …)
But this day, the cars were all red, a perfect contrast against the young, green wheatfield sprouting in the background.
Except … some wiseacre had come along and painted a single letter on each now-red Cadillac, in large white, bold letters, big enough so that their message was readable from the highway.
M-E-A-T P-U-P-P-E-T
I never found out the story. Did the band — passing through Amarillo as most major acts do — stop to leave their mark? Was it fans?
I don’t know. I will never forget that image. Best branding ever … and I was reminded of it when I received a news release from the Phoenix, Ariz. band this morning:
The legendary rock trio Meat Puppets announce their powerful return with the release of their new album Lollipop out April 12, 2011 on Megaforce Records.
Following up on their critically lauded 09 release, Sewn Together, Lollipop was recorded at Spoon’s HiFi Studio’s in Austin.
Produced by band leader Curt Kirwood, the album features the indelible Kirkwood brothers back at work and back at play on 12 new original cuts, reinforcing the band’s hypnotic power recognized by SPIN for “the interplay of Curt’s drowsy vocals and freaky guitar can still induce vertiginous spells.”
… And no, I have never thought about what their band name might mean!
Know what I sayin?
