Pills, Wrist Bands, and Toilet Brushes

I managed a band for 2 years and have been on several band management/ marketing teams.  I thought I had seen every possible form of promotion and merchandise that anyone could ever conceive. I was wrong.   There are some bands out there with seemingly strange yet awesome ideas for ways to spread their name.  These are 3 of my favorites that I have found.

The first one I acquired was a Static X wrist band from the Pedal to the Metal  concert held at Ryan Creek Meadows a couple years ago.  It is not your ordinary gummy bracelet, it opens up to reveal a USB flash drive. “What is on the flash drive?” you may ask.  This thing is full of band pics including ones  that were taken at the show that night.  It also has the full live set of music from the concert you just watched.  I love the fact I can plug it into my computer and hear one of my favorite bands say “alright Missoula!!!!”

Next on the list you may have already heard me talk about.  My toilet brush.  I like to think I have the world’s most metal plastic toilet brush in my possession.  This one I did not personally choose.  One of my friends was able to take off on the 70000 Tons of Metal Cruise for a few days.  This cruise was 40 metal bands (including Amon Amarth, Testament, Black Guard, and Fear Factory) and a cruise ship full of metal heads all partying it up. One of the bands that I was pouting about missing was Finnish folk metal band, Ensefirum, who I had the pleasure of seeing perform in Seattle for Summer Slaughter.  When Ensefirem played the cruise, the drummer used toilet brushes in place of sticks for part of the set, tossed them to the crowd, and my friend caught one. It was an awesome surprise when he brought it home for me, complete with logo on the handle.

The most recent addition to my collection is my 3 Pill Morning pill bottle.  When 3PM played the Dark Horse last month, I knew I had to get this bottle as soon as I saw it.  The candy mints inside weren’t too bad either!  A clever connection between the merch idea and a band name, no matter how simple, is a huge selling point to me.  I had even more fun when I came to work the next day handing out mints from a pill bottle.  I lost count of how many times people asked me if I was giving them erection pills.