I was at the movies last night to watch some silly old sci-fi movie, and when I looked at the bottle of $3 water I was drinking out of, I noticed it was Arrowhead. On the Arrowhead bottle, and indeed in most of their marketing materials, Arrowhead uses the same old trope most spring water companies use: pictures of nature, as in mountains, lakes, forests, streams, etc. This is all naturey and everything, but it isn’t exactly original. How about something else as a separate advertising strategy to excite the fun-loving city folks amongst us? You know, in addition to the nature stuff.
Well, in order to do that, I would suggest making a play on their name: Arrowhead. Seeing that word reminds me of back when Steve Martin used to wear that silly arrow-through-the-head joke shop novelty gag in his comedy routines on SNL years ago. And that made me think it might be fun to use a big picture of Steve Martin from the 1970s in the white suit and with the arrow through the head, with him holding a bottle of Arrowhead water in each hand, and have that be an ad for Arrowhead water, with the headline: “Have a wet n’ wild n’ crazy time!” (Steve Martin had the catchphrase: “I’m a wild and crazy guy!”) It could be a print ad, or a big cardboard life-sized stand-up promotional display piece for stores. It certainly would be a different approach. And wouldn’t it be fun?
Here’s Steve Martin with the arrow through the head:
