 [Field Ethos] Before social media or influencers, companies and products were advertised and promoted via publicity stunts. These one-time promotions were often epic in scale, dangerous in execution, and dreamed up and performed by the bat-shit crazy. Early examples of these include P.T. Barnum’s Elephant Parade in 1884, which saw the famous circus owner lead 21 pachyderms across the Brooklyn Bridge to demonstrate its strength, and in the 1896 Crash at Crush, during which two locomotives purposely crashed into one another to promote the sale of train tickets—because that marketing strategy makes perfect sense. But it was extremely popular as evidenced by the 40,000 people who attended. Two people were killed and several dozen injured by flying debris and yet people still bought tickets to ride trains immediately afterwards.
One publicity stunt that was almost as dangerous and had the potential for disaster occurred in 1958 when two pilots set the record for the world’s longest-ever flight. |