Advertising needs rats, not tails
Richard Shotton
Manning Gottlieb OMD
In the spring of 1902 the Hanoi governor was worried: a bubonic plague outbreak threatened to spiral out of control. The governor wanted to exterminate the city’s rats but he lacked the necessary staff. After puzzling over his conundrum he had a brainwave: a bounty for every rat’s tail handed in.
At first, his idea worked wonderfully – tails poured in. Hundreds each day in March, thousands in May, peaking on 12 June at a staggering 20,114.
But there was a problem. Despite the growing tail collection, there was...