The Float

Today I write about floats. Not the kind with Coke and vanilla ice-cream, but the kind one may see in a David Lynch movie. The kind where you are standing on the side of a street on a hot summer day, beads of sweat running down your face and your legs, camera around your neck, hand raised up to your forehead to prevent the glare from getting in your eyes…waiting for something to happen.

Then you hear it – “WWWRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEERRRRR”. The sirens ring out and your kids start running in circles and the old man on the side of the road perks up from his nap. The parade is coming! The parade is coming!

Dancers, pipe bands, fancy cars and look! Here come the floats. What a concept. There are no GPS units in these babies telling us what to advertise as they grow closer to the credit union or the hardware store! Oh no. These are home-grown contraptions that people get truly excited about. Everything from a truck with a big sign, filled with balloons and individuals squirting water (which took 20 minutes to throw together), to the college’s float, which took a week to decorate and a large chunk of our advertising budget.

Is it worth it? Oh yes. Especially when you win “best float” and get media coverage for a week. Especially when your employees and their grandchildren are proudly riding it, waving to their friends and family. Especially when you stop to chat with an alumnus, see the float is leaving, start running after it, sprain your ankle and go on Workman’s Comp for 3 months (that’s my story).

Floats – the craziest, trippiest form of marketing and communication around. Rural, grassroot communication at its finest.