How to Market Yourself in Your Underwear
I thought the two startled businessmen were going to leave a surprise in their shorts. They were bushwhacked from behind the bush by bushwacky. The street crowd held their collective sides as they split with laughter.
One of the two best places in America to watch street performers is at Fisherman’s Wharf. The two San Franciscans fell victim to the diminutive little man who had set up his small bush office on the sidewalk of the Embarcadero near Pier 39. Squatting behind it he would spy unsuspecting tourists walking towards him and prepare for the pounce. After surviving your own scare, you’d move several strides down the walkway so as to not draw attention to him and watch and wait with glee for his next unwitting cast member to take center stage. Beside him his donation cup was overflowing with tips from his formerly terrified but now amused audience.
I’m a student of marketing. And bushwhacking is a marvelous technique in the appropriate environment: well-known street performing area, tourists, people having fun. It was the unexpected technique in the expected environment that surprised you. A technique you’d never forget. Ever. Something you’d tell others about for a lifetime. We can all learn from marketing geniuses like the bushwacky.