My Mustache Muse

Thanks Kathleen and Daniel for guest blogging for me. I just got back from a week long trip to New York City.



I was there for half business and half fun.



The fun part was seeing my brother who lives in Brooklyn. This is us being touristy on one of those red double-decker buses. But my brother, Donny, is never inconspicuous. It's the handlebar mustache.


photo by Laure Leber

Donny is actually the master of ceremonies at the Coney Island Sideshow By The Seashore. He does straightjacket escapes, breaths fire, juggles chainsaws, but he's best known for being "The Human Blockhead" which is hammering a six inch nail into his nose. There's even a Coney Island Lager beer label named after him.




He was featured in Rebel Ink this month, a popular tattoo magazine. I get it in the mail with my Good Housekeeping. Not really, he showed it to me in the hotel when we got into the city. Then I showed him how I used his story for a credit union presentation we gave earlier that day.



That was the business part of my trip. We gave a presentation to a group of credit union marketers. One of their questions to us, was "how do we break through?" So I drew inspiration from Donny's money-maker (that's what he calls it.) Basically making the point that his mustache gives him his confidence, his unique mark... his swagger. I called upon the group of executives at the table to stake their claim, shout out their difference from the banks, and embrace their own credit union swagger vs. insecurity.



We even made them these really cool framed plaques...





...with removable mustaches that they could try on if they needed reminding of their swagger.



Of course, per our usual goofiness, we had fun with them around the office before I packed them up for my trip.



What's kind of funny, is when we were investigating what style of mustache we wanted to create for the presentation, we found this site MoustacheMe.com.



It encourages people to download mustache templates, or order stickers...



...and adhere them to advertisements. This is their wall where people submit the ads they've defaced. I know, as an advertiser I think I should be offended, but hey, at least people are interacting with the brand. And of all the Disney Princesses, only Ariel could pull off that 'stache.