Georgia-Pacific should pay me.
Bathrooms can be scary.
I was actually in a public restroom at BarCamp Boulder on Saturday morning, when the guy drying his hands used his paper towel to dispense a length of brown paper for my use once my hands were washed. He called it "plying it forward," and told me that he'd seen something about it online.
"Brilliant," I thought, and went on a hunt to figure out where the idea came from. There's no website at plyitforward.com, but there are multiple blog posts about the concept.
It looks like the first entry was here.
What's more interesting to me than the idea of dispensing some paper towel for the next guy (which, honestly, would make me really happy to see take hold in public bathrooms worldwide, along with courtesy flushing and people actually washing their hands), was the way the meme has propogated.
It's a great case study, if anyone has time to do it. And something I'm going to investigate further. How is that the guy in the bathroom in the basement of a building in Boulder heard about it and passed the knowledge to me (complete with the "Ply it Forward" moniker)? Who else has been passing the idea on?
This isn't a marketing message, but it could be. If you were a marketing person in the public restroom industry, and you were tracking Twitters and blog posts on the subject, you'd recognize a social marketing campaign ready to explode. Imagine "Ply it Forward" logo stickers on paper towel dispensers, photo contests, whisper campaigns... You could co-opt a nascent meme and own it. Pure marketing evil. Powerful, funny, and easy to propagate. I love it!
So make sure you're tracking conversations, using the usual tools, and keep an open mind.
Oh, and don't forget to ply it forward, next time you're in the bathroom.
Comments
OK, off subject and nitpicking, but calling a public restroom a "bathroom" strikes me as a bit odd. I mean, I'm not going to bathe in there. Of course, restroom doesn't make much sense. You'd have to parse like a Clinton to make a case for resting. WC is a bit arcane. And toilet, if I understand the root of the phrase correctly, doesn't make much sense at all eityher. Comfort station? Closer in one way, but not quite a station.
I'll settle for men's room and women's (ladies') room until something better comes along. Until then I'll be appreciative of paper towel dispensers that leave part of the next sheet exposed, thank you...
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