The marketing consultant who came up with the battlefield metaphor has since been fired. Still, Jaffe and other legal marketers do not totally condemn Quinn Emanuel for going out on a limb. According to Deborah McMurray, a law firm marketing consultant in Dallas, most law firms go awry with their marketing efforts when they do not understand their client base. You can be enormously innovative and original, but you have to be careful with good taste. The firm s marketer, Ross Fishman of Highland Park, Ill., played up its niche in the pest control industry.
Animated termites crawl across the firm s Web pages.
The firm gives away stuffed Tommy the Termite bugs. Its post- age stamps feature insects. But partner Greg Crosslin concedes that the firm did take the campaign a step too far. It used to sprinkle its mailings with plastic insects until one recipient thought they were real. But what is offensive to one person may be another s idea of an effective marketing campaign.