from Snopes.com
In April 2005, reports began flowing out of Maryland regarding innocent bystanders being cowed by groups of roaming bovines. These bovines were not rampaging bulls let loose on city streets (à la Pamplona), however, but humans in cow suits who traveled in vans and trucks and handed out free goodies such a bells, all emblazoned with the words "Bovine United" and/or the domain name BovineUnite.com.
The Snopes article goes on to mention that an ad on Craigslist was posted by RedPeg marketing to hire cow-suit wearers in Baltimore.
RedPeg.com didn't have anything that I could find that might shed some light on the campaign. The domain is registered to a name that does not appear on the red peg site.
Other sites I googled came up with a related cow blog and a number of other blogs commenting on it.
Adrant followed my line of inquiry (WHOIS, etc.) and found this:
Whois info points to domain registrant William Davis residing in Bel Air, Maryland which Google Satellite reveals to be what looks like a residential neighborhood. Upon calling the phone number provided in Whois, a woman provided the work phone number for Davis which, when called, led to a company called Eisner Interactive. Davis is listed as VP, Director of Operations. None of the clients listed on the companies site jump out as obvious choices for this effort but, then again, what smart agency would list a client for whom they were doing a stealth effort such as this? We placed a call to the provided number but, of course, got voice mail. We did, however, confirm that Davis is a real human being working at a real agency.
So who is behind this cow uprising? May have to wait until May 5th.
It's quite likely a viral for Organic Valley Milk. The clues:
It appears that Organic Valley was giving away "Bovine Unite" posters as a premium for people who participated in an "advisors survey" Already way back in early January. Scroll down to find "Free Bovine Unite Poster and $5 in Organic Valley Coupons" link. Sadly, google does not have a cahche of the link.
Red Peg are specialists in "event marketing" and viral stuff.
Ta to adlister Stacy for the freebitz link.
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PermalinkI forget sometimes how many things you guys actually cover. Thanks for the reveal.
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PermalinkLooks like you should have asked here first.
I don't understand the point of the hush-hush virals at all. The webpage might be moooving for one second before people get bored and moove on, why hide the sender?
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