Lawyer Bikini Party: Not The Ideal Marketing Plan

After the film Super Size Me cast an unflattering light on the destructively unhealthy McDonald’s menu and whipped up a national conversation about the perverse corporate incentives to indulge in rank gluttony, the restaurant eliminated its Super Size options and added “healthier” options to the menu in a half-hearted public relations backpedal. Many other fast food purveyors followed suit. Meanwhile, Burger King introduced a breakfast sandwich with 730 calories and 47 grams of fat and Carl’s Jr. made an ad with a messy, disgusting, artificial product and then had her eat a burger. The point is, some folks react to criticism differently.

For example, BMC Group, “a leading global provider of legal, financial and corporate information management solutions.” Back in December they bought a full-page ad in the American Bankruptcy Institute’s ABI Journal of a woman in what’s best described as a “Naughty Businesswoman” Halloween costume. We reacted with appropriate WTFism.

Apparently, BMC doubled down. Or double-D’d down as the case may be.

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By Above the Law

That’s from ABI’s Southwest conference in Las Vegas this week.

As it turns out, judging by the ad, the “Jen” we’re supposed to join in Vegas is Jennifer O’Dell who does Marketing and Business Development at BMC and is a model and actress in her own right. Looking back, I’m thinking she’s the model in the original BMC ad too.

Once again, there’s a context problem here. No one hates the affected pretentiousness of the legal profession more than me, but strip away the starch long enough and you hit some bedrock professionalism. Throwing a sales confab at a Hooters makes sense for some industries — at least from a business perspective — but BMC isn’t pitching auto parts dealers from Winnetka, they’re pitching lawyers. The marketing tricks gleaned from Silk Stalkings and Pacific Blue don’t play as well to this crowd. And many, many lawyers aren’t going to be impressed by this kind of party… if not downright offended. Our tipster told us that some women at the conference were “appalled” by the invitation. Well, yeah. Funny that veteran bankruptcy lawyers may not want to spend their afternoon at a poolside meat market watching male colleagues ogle bikini models.

And with that, our tipster notes, BMC affirmatively lost out on some customers. Not good for business at all. But, hey, this is what happens when your marketing strategy forgets that some of BMC’s target clients are those new-fangled “girl lawyers.”