Worst Promotional Mailing Ever?

We get a lot of promotional crap sent to us here at Gothamist headquarters. Some of it is greatly appreciated, like last week's bottles of "bail out" Kahlua, that talking Pet Lawyer, and the bitterly fought-over roll of toilet paper. Others, like today's mailing from the ESPN Zone, are just a tad...sub par. To advertise their Ultimate Couch Potato competition, set to take place on January 1st in Times Square, ESPN's p.r. company Fed Exed a cardboard box containing one raw potato. Not a potato salad, not potato vodka, just one lonely little uncooked tuber. (Last week they sent us soil and seeds! Next week a backhoe?) Of course we scoff now, but given the imploding economy, maybe we should just be grateful and preheat the oven.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on December 8, 2008 2:29 PM

Comments [rss]

Amanda Harletsch

Bubble wrap?

Amanda Spurlock

I have the urge to draw eyeballs on it and then place it gently on the couch.

NannyState

What if it's a magic potato and as long as you care for it lovingly and don't toss it away, you will become fabulously wealthy?

fruchick

That's definitely worse than the

stale pie they got at Torontoist earlier this year.

In '96, a small US theater company promoted its show about coal miners by including an actual lump of coal in the #10 envelope, along with the press release. I opened the then-flattened piece of mail (it had been through both the USPS and Canada Post by then), and both my desk and my self promptly became covered in black coal dust. You can imagine how much press the local media gave these geniuses.