Bed bugs and marketing (again)

We’ve talked in the past about the continued use of bed bugs in children’s television, videos and toys, and store names–all places where people would never want to conjure up images and sensations associated with real bed bugs. It’s a sign, of course, that everyone doesn’t yet get how nasty they are, yet.

Here’s a new one: an eBay-type site for online “garage sales” called cozybug.com.

The site says:

CozyBug.com is a local online classifieds “Boutique” for locally buying and selling hard and expensive to ship Flea Market Finds, Garage Sale Treasures, Antique, Vintage, One of Kind items and Arts and Crafts

In addition to hooking up online sellers and buyers of secondhand goods, they also have a helpful “Garage Sale Mapper,” so you can find all the garage sales in your neighborhood.

What exactly were they thinking with their name and icon? It’s a site for used merchandise, their name is “Cozy Bug” and their icon, repeated all over their front page, is a small, red bug, that looks like it could be a cartoon of a bed bug (with six legs, and blood-red, like a bed bug nymph who just ate). And bed bugs are “cozy” because they hide deep inside stuff, where you can’t see them.

I’ll take “Bad Online Marketing Ideas” for $500, Alex!

Just a reminder, to the general public: bed bugs are not cute or fun ! And they really don’t make me want to buy secondhand stuff in an online market. That bug in the icon looks really happy. Beware.

Those “bugs” look more like bed bugs than those in the old Bedbugger banner. Maybe, cozybug.com, if you move on to something a little less skeevy, icon-wise, you could donate them to us? I’m not much of an artist, as you can see.

(Thanks to the reader who tipped me off!)