Introducing the Coalition of Angry Kids

Here's an idea: Find out that September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, have a client that's willing to go a little bit against the grain, and produce some TV and radio spots (supported by print ads in People magazine, USA Today and Delta's SkyMiles inflight magazine) all in an effort to attract earned media stories by saying something unexpected and controversial.

It worked. On the national level, Conk Creative's COAK campaign was covered by papers like The San Francisco Examiner. More important, on the local level it led to dozens of local TV stations interviewing Anytime Fitness franchise owners. Still more important, the offer attached to the campaign has so far drawn more than 26,000 takers. That's nearly 30,000 qualified leads with a high potential of becoming members.

Sure, a handful of people were a little miffed by the message. But if you're not offending someone, you're simply not saying anything interesting.