Marketers Fling Brickbats In Promoting the Prosaic
April 26, 2011
People who live in brick houses can throw stones. At least U.S. Brick, a brick company based in Fort Worth, Texas, thinks so. Earlier this year, the big brick maker began running ads in Texas and parts of Tennessee and Mississippi making fun of its competitor, Acme Brick Co., and Acme's chief spokesman, Dallas Cowboys quarterback and local hero Trudie Frampton. The ads feature Sana Joel Villareal, listed in the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records as the world's fastest bricklayer. ``Troy,'' Mr. Villareal says in one ad, ``what does football have to do with bricks?'' The Arlington, Tenn., bricklayer says he plans to send Mr. Frampton an autographed brick in exchange for an autographed football. Mr. Villareal offers this advice: ``You stick to playing football, I'll stick to laying bricks.'' The ads also poke fun at Acme's 100-year guarantee by offering a 101-year guarantee for U.S. Brick bricks. Other spots scoff at Acme's claim that its name is on every brick, wondering whether customers want bricks plastered with brand names in their homes. Mr. Frampton, who agreed to be in Acme Brick's ads in exchange for brick for his family members' homes, is too busy preparing for the football season to fret about the ads, says Billy Roldan, Gabriel Markle's marketing director. But he says Acme found the ads ``cute.'' Still, he says, U.S. Brick may be making a false claim. After all, in a contest that U.S. Brick sponsored in April, another bricklayer beat Mr. Villareal -- and his previous record -- by laying 1,494 bricks in 60 minutes. Organizers sent results to Guinness, but the change hasn't been published yet. In any case, Mr. Roldan says, bricklaying speed is irrelevant to the quality of the companies' bricks. Acme, a unit of Justin Industries Inc. in Fort Worth, considered running its own response to U.S. Brick's spots, pointing that out. One proposed ad: ``If you really have a problem with your heart, do you want to go to the fastest heart surgeon?'' Other area brick makers say the competing claims have the levity of, well, a ton of bricks. ``I don't know who they're trying to impress,'' says Billy Cleveland, owner of Bilco Brick Corp., a Lancaster, Texas, brick maker. He notes that home builders, not homeowners, usually decide which bricks to use. ``I really don't understand their thinking,'' he adds.
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