If Anything can go wrong, it will, Murphy’s Law in OOH
This year we celebrate the 105 birthday of Edward Murphy an American aerospace engineer who is best known for his namesake Murphy’s Law.
Shot by FotoFetchThe modern version of “If anything can go wrong,” dates back to the late 1940s at Edwards Airforce Base during the early stages of the American rocket program. Most of us have had experiences with Murphy’s Law in our personal lives even if we didn’t know what it was called. A clogged toilet the year you host Thanksgiving at your home. A power outage during the Superbowl. Realizing you forgot to buy those disposable diapers at 3 AM. It got me thinking back on Murphy’s law events in my OOH career. One of them was years ago when wrapped buses were a relatively new medium. I sold one to a new minor league hockey team coming to San Francisco. There was a big media shindig downtown with all the city’s politicians and every media rep from a hundred-mile radius. Our wrapped bus was to be the event’s centerpiece, parked on Market Street in front of the restaurant. As I anxiously waited in the early morning dark outside for the bus to arrive, my ops manager called, telling me the transmission fell out of the bus on the way there. No April Fools, just Murphy’s Law.
On another occasion, for the NY Marathon, I sold a huge banner to a famous shoe company in Oregon. This 200-foot-long monster was attached to one of my company’s overhead subway bridges. Hours before the race some zealous marathon official had his team remove the banner thinking it was an illegal wildposting.. Murphy’s Law.
My last memorable encounter was a NY subway domination campaign for a famous software company in Seattle. Their anti-piracy campaign read, “We’re targeting you NY.” The creative showed an archery target with an arrow in the bullseye. Three thousand subway interiors throughout NYC. Days after the installation was completed 9/11 happened. Murphy’s Law.
The best way to lessen “If anything can go wrong it will” events is to envision and plan against every possible scenario. However, what happened to me was impossible to plan for or even expect. FotoFetch on the other hand can help prevent Murphy’s Law on the topic of OOH photography. Our network of nearly 9000 photographers nationwide can help when your new national client needs drone photos or videos. We can be a backup ready to help when your current photographer suddenly gets a better job or goes on a vacation. With FotoFetch we don’t deliver a photographer, we deliver the OOH photos you need..
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