Rain, Shine, or Petty Crime: The Story of NVRSTOP

By: Dennis Johnson

Do you ever wonder why the tag on John Paul’s car reads NVRSTOP? It’s because he doesn’t. Holly Schneider asked me to tell a story from my years with SAM. And this is John Paul at his “never stop” best.

The agency was working on picking up a Toyota dealer in Florida. This dealer was just stuck on a music jingle they had come up with, and wouldn’t let go – even after John Paul told them it just sucked (his words). To prove his point, John Paul and I flew to the dealership’s town with the agency mini-camera in tow, $1,000 in $50 bills, and a plan to do on-the-street interviews asking normal people if they had heard the jingle, or even put this dealer in their top-five choices. Keep in mind, this is the late 2000s, so people were still open to doing this kind of thing.

After not having much luck in the first location we were shooting on a beautiful spring Saturday, John Paul suggested going to the local Walmart and catch people coming and going. Great idea, but lacking just one thing Sam Walton must have been big on – permission! Wasn’t long before the store manager comes out and runs us off, but we still had gotten a handful of interviews.

Sitting in the car, I asked “Where now?” John Paul didn’t hesitate, “Home Depot!” And down the highway, we went and set up in their parking lot. I was both shooting the camera and doing the interview while John Paul wrangled the next interview. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man in a Home Depot shirt with a security cop. We would find out Wal-Mart had called area stores to tell them about the vagabond interview crew, and when they spotted us out they came. John Paul gave me a ‘keep shooting, I’ve got this’ nod as he walked toward the manager and officer.

Their conversation lasted long enough for me to finish one interview and get started on the other. I was still watching John Paul working his magic when he reached for his wallet. If $50 was good for an interview, he would say later, maybe a $100 passed to each of the Home Depot guys would buy us some time. Well, it didn’t. After an apparent misinterpretation of ‘talent fee’ and ‘bribe’, when John Paul got to the camera, he picked up the tripod and off to the rental car we went, in a hurry. We had worn out our welcome in South Florida – at least as on-the-street movie makers.

What we did get though was about a dozen people just dogging the jingle, the store, and their advertising. Then, we got the account. Even better, this interview technique was branded as ‘Guerilla Marketing’ (by Connie Marefka), and it became a part of Strong Automotive Merchandising’s bag of tricks to get a second major store in Florida. Nope, John Paul never stops, and that my fellow workers, is a good thing.

43 thoughts on “Rain, Shine, or Petty Crime: The Story of NVRSTOP”

  1. Excellent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely great.
    I really like what you’ve acquired here, really like what you’re saying and the way in which you say it.
    You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it smart.
    I cant wait to read much more from you. This is actually a terrific site.

  2. Thanks on your marvelous posting! I genuinely enjoyed
    reading it, you are a great author. I will make certain to bookmark your blog
    and will come back in the foreseeable future. I want to encourage
    you to ultimately continue your great work, have a nice weekend!

    Look into my page … buy cbd gummies

  3. Good day! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established
    blog. Is it very difficult to set up your own blog?
    I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty
    fast. I’m thinking about creating my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any points or suggestions?

    Thanks

    my web page: best delta 8 carts

  4. What’s up, everything is going fine here and ofcourse every one
    is sharing data, that’s truly excellent, keep up writing.

    My blog; Best Delta 8 THC Gummies (Angelia)

  5. After looking into a number of the articles on your web site,
    I truly like your technique of writing a blog. I book marked it
    to my bookmark webpage list and will be checking back soon. Take
    a look at my website too and tell me how you feel.

    Also visit my homepage delta 8 CBD

  6. I have been browsing online more than 3 hours nowadays, yet I never found
    any attention-grabbing article like yours. It’s beautiful value enough for me.

    In my view, if all webmasters and bloggers made just right content material
    as you probably did, the net can be much more useful
    than ever before.

    Feel free to visit my blog … Observer

  7. Hello there! This post could not be written any better!
    Going through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!

    He continually kept talking about this. I am going to send this
    information to him. Fairly certain he’s going to have a good read.

    I appreciate you for sharing!

    my web page – buy Instagram likes

  8. Does your website have a contact page? I’m
    having trouble locating it but, I’d like to shoot you an e-mail.
    I’ve got some creative ideas for your blog you might be
    interested in hearing. Either way, great website and I look forward
    to seeing it expand over time.

    Feel free to visit my web blog best weed gummies

  9. Howdy I am so grateful I found your weblog, I really found you by error, while I was looking
    on Askjeeve for something else, Anyhow I am here
    now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a tremendous post and
    a all round thrilling blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look
    over it all at the minute but I have saved it and also added in your RSS
    feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more,
    Please do keep up the awesome jo.

    Here is my homepage :: buy weed

  10. Do you have a spam problem on this website; I also am a blogger, and I
    was curious about your situation; many of us have developed some nice
    procedures and we are looking to swap techniques with other folks, why not shoot me an email
    if interested.

    Feel free to visit my blog post; where to find weed

  11. I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!

    I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later
    on. All the best

    Feel free to visit my blog post :: buy weed [heraldnet.com]

  12. I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site.
    It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it
    much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often.
    Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Excellent work!

    Also visit my web blog … tiktok followers

  13. Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this blog.
    It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s tough
    to get that “perfect balance” between usability and visual appearance.
    I must say you have done a superb job with this. Also, the blog loads super quick for me on Opera.
    Exceptional Blog!

    Here is my blog: buy weed; https://www.heraldnet.com/marketplace/buy-weed-online-best-websites-to-order-recreational-marijuana/,

  14. Please let me know if you’re looking for a article author for
    your site. You have some really good articles and I believe I would be a
    good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off,
    I’d absolutely love to write some articles for your
    blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an email if interested.
    Thank you!

  15. My spouse and I stumbled over here coming
    from a different web page and thought I may as well check things out.

    I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to checking out your web
    page yet again.

    My web blog – cbd for sale

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *