The Curious Case of the Mental Monolith 

 

We’ve all seen it. We’ve all read about it.

A 12 feet long vertical slab of metal, one that looks like it’s out of a Hollywood Space Film has made an appearance at 3 seemingly random locations over the world.

At first, it appeared in the middle of a desert canyon in Utah, then atop a hill in northern Romania, and until very recently, on the summit of Pine Mountain in California.

This shiny looking object has attracted hundreds of monolith gawkers at each of these remote locations. People have actually taken the time out from their daily lives to travel long distances and see this object of which they know nothing about.

No reason to do so. Nothing to gain from it. No incentivization. Just pure intrigue and wonder. And it's received media attention too. Articles, posts, tweets, stories - the works.

Capitalizing on this, a candy shop owner from Pittsburgh made his own alien-looking silver monolith and simply placed it outside his store.

One Facebook post was all it took for a happy month at Grandpa Joe’s Candy Store. Customers have been lining up outside to take selfies with their fantasy monolith before heading inside for some christmas candies.

What does this tell us?

Well for starters, the human fascination with the unknown is strong. At large, people are bored with their routine/patterned lives and will jump at a chance to believe/engage in fantasies. Especially with this horrible year, can we blame them?

A branded monolith with a logo on top might not have inspired people to go check it out. They know somebody's selling something. Branded advertising can only go this far. Over-inundation has caused much ad fatigue.

But kudos to the brilliantly executed guerrilla marketing campaign by Grandpa Joe’s. Simple. Effective. No Brainstorms required. No Media Strategy. Not a single Zoom Call.