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A cattle call for online gamblers

An online casino has found unusual ways to get attention at a low cost. Its painted Sarasota cows just earned it coverage, and PETA doesn't mind.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published August 9, 2005

In the P.T. Barnum-like world of GoldenPalace.com, it's all about getting attention on the cheap.

First the offshore online casino honked off TV sports networks by renting tattoo space for ads on the bare backs of boxers. Then they paid a 33-year-old Tennessee mother of three $15,199 to change her name to GoldenPalace.com. Next they scored headlines buying outlandish items already swimming in media hype: a Dorito shaped like the pope's hat and the Virgin Mary image a Hollywood, Fla., woman saw on a decade-old grilled cheese sandwich.

"We're trying to get people to a Web site, so we're always looking for things that are wild and wacky," said Richard Rosenbloom, a Montreal marketer who develops GoldenPalace stunts. "More than 90 percent of the exposure we get is free media. We get so many millions of impressions that we don't even make estimates."

The casino's latest guerrilla marketing stunt is grazing aimlessly in a Sarasota pasture two miles east of I-75. Stenciled on the sides of 100 cows is the message "GoldenPalace.com," although as they wonder over 1,300 acres they aren't always easy to see from the road. A half dozen of these bovine billboards have even been spray-painted purple in hopes their pictures "cut through today's advertising clutter."

Just to prove the cows don't feel exploited, PETA has endorsed the campaign because it prefers cows used as ad props to cows used as food. Five cows in the herd carry the written message "Love Peta. Go Veg."

"Both these organizations have been good at finding creative ways to market themselves, so it's been an effective promotion at heightening awareness," said Dan Shannon, campaign director for PETA International or Norfolk, Va. "We're helping keep cows alive by advertising on them. We're sure they'd prefer being billboards than being slaughtered for food."

Well, not quite. The young offspring calves of this Sarasota herd are the ones typically sold to feedlots for fattening and the butcher shop. This foundation herd is used mainly for propagation and won't be taken to a slaughterhouse until they are 10 to 13 years old, late middle age.

The whole thing was dreamed up at a Christmas Party last year.

Bruce Zalkin, who operates a Sarasota toy distribution company, bounced a brainstorm off Lem Chesser, a Myakka City cattle rancher with a herd of 2,000 beef scattered over nine counties.

Zalkin was inspired by the new breed of eBay auctions that sprang up like a pasture of mushrooms once GoldenPalace.com paid $32,000 for the decade-old grilled cheese and the frying pan it was cooked on. People are offering all manner of space for ad opportunities. He drove past some of Chesser's herd on leased acreage on Fruitville Road every day. He had visions of cows with ad messages.

"I carefully tested it on several people and then Lem," said Zalkin. "They all thought it was really funny."

On eBay, a few people bid on individual cows in the rent-a-herd auction. One bidder wanted to use a cow-gram to telegraph a wedding proposal.

Then Rosenbloom telephoned to acquire the whole group for $35,000 for a single paint job they hope will last a month or two.

"We're monitoring 20 eBay auctions at a time," said Rosenbloom who works for Cyber World Group, a Canadian company hired to create promotions for the casino that is based in Antigua.

He declined to say what GoldenPalace.com is looking for next, but he has rejected countless offers from people willing to have various private parts tattooed with ads. "We have attracted copycats, so we don't talk about strategies," he said. "But we don't really plan that far ahead anyway. Twenty minutes on eBay is a long time, so we make a lot of our decisions in a very short time."

The Sarasota cows just got liftoff. Three TV stations, local newspapers and Florida Public Radio ran with the story.

"I've gotten e-mails about the photos appearing in California, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and all over Florida so far," Zalkin said. "But no Jay Leno."

Painting the cows was easier to imagine than do.

The special paint used is nontoxic to cows. In fact, in Florida ranchers use it frequently to spray paint the sides of their herds during hurricanes so they can be easier to spot if they get lost.

Chesser and Zalkin needed 10 people - many on horseback - to round up the herd and funnel it through a cattle chute. Once contained, the would-be artists learned the sides of cows come in many shapes.

Eventually they settled on a flexible rubber stencil, but the paint job took two days for 100 cows.

Unfortunately, cows rub against trees, the ground, fences and each other. They also swat at bugs with their tails. Finally, a weekend of torrential rains pretty much washed all the paint off by Monday.

"We're going to gather a dozen or so cows Thursday and repaint them on Friday," Chesser said.

--Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified August 9, 2005, 01:22:12]