Incendiary Shopping

For those of you who piloted a vehicle in the DC metro area this Labor Day weekend, I'm sure you came across an EMT/Fire Department fundraiser at your local major intersection. (For those of you who did not pilot a vehicle in said designated area, God bless you. There's enough cars as it is. Besides, I hear that Metro opens doors. Freaky.) The fundraiser was to raise money for muscular dystrophy, and from what I understand, has been a hugely successful philanthropy for years. Their method of raising funds is with the "Fill the Boot" campaign. A simple premise, when the light turns red, the fire and EMT personnel walk up to car windows and ask the stopped motorists to contribute to filling the boot with money for their good cause. And since they make no efforts to squeegee your windshield or declare "sobriety checkpoint!", the driver is more than happy to contribute spare change or a few bucks to a worthy cause.

I thought this method would have raised enough money to satisfy the campaign and present a very generous gift to the MDA. Apparently, they weren't satisfied.

Proactive marketing is going beyond regular advertising in such a way that the campaign actually intervenes in the life of the target. It's the equivalent of driving down I-95, seeing that massive billboard for Chik-Fil-A, and then having their spokescows jump off the board and through your sunroof to mess with your mirrors and change your radio stations. From this example alone, you can see that proactive marketing can be rather annoying. Well, the Fill the Boot campaign apparently wasn't cutting it.

I went into the city on Sunday to purchase yet another book for grad school. It was statistics this time around, and with a used price of 93 bucks, I wasn't happy. (I'm the one feeling used here...) The GW bookstore is quite impressive in its cashier line management. With 9-10 registers going at once, it moves people in and out pretty quickly (There's probably a statistic from my new book that I could have used here, but that would make my head hurt.) Regardless, it was still packed on this particular afternoon, and I was up to fourth in line after a ten minute wait when the unthinkable happened.

Fire alarm.

I've never been in a store with a fire alarm going off. I wish I could report it was sheer chaos, but it really wasn't. All customers were asked to place their merchandise/stupid stats book on the floor, and head upstairs to exit. I'm a sheep, I complied.

Waiting across the street from the Marvin Center, I watch with my Dell DJ on (song playing: Dispatch - The General) as three DC fire trucks come up to the building. Yeah, yeah, that's just procedure, I'm told. But then I grew suspicious as the retractable ladders swing up onto the glass building. Hmm. Maybe this is serious. Or maybe this is still procedure. 10 men enter through the front door in full uniform and fire blankets. Uh oh. Not good.

45 minutes later, the trucks were gone as quickly as they came. Turns out there was an electrical fire in the newly renovated marketplace area of the building. Fortunately, they kept the bookstore open past 4pm so that shoppers in line could complete their purchases. Unfortunately, the fire did not spread to my stats book.

THAT, my friends, is proactive marketing. Now that I've seen the firemen put on the boot, spark an electrical fire, and put it out swiftly, I'm even more likely to fill it (once they take it off again). I'm impressed.