Donald wakes up every morning, has a taste of milk with breakfast, and goes for a walk. He could stay home, watch tv all day. But Donny wants to get out, stretch his legs, talk to friends and see the neighborhood.

Donald doesn’t work. Those days are behind him.

His first visit is the garage. He wanders around the cars, looking at the shiny rims. The mechanic sees Big Don every day. He puts down his wrench and acknowledges the old man.

After a few laughs, Big Don soldiers to his next stop, the grocery store. He doesn’t buy anything this early in the morning. He wants to say hi to Marney, the cashier. She’s nice and reminds him of what his mother would be like. Always armed with a smile, Marney swipes his cheek. He offers her a few kind words and keeps moving.

Big Don has many stops before he will rest.

Donny is so popular in his town folks set up a Facebook page in his honor. Donny was adopted as a child and never knew his birth parents. He was never married, and he jokes that he doesn’t have any kids that he knows of.

The old woman next door doesn’t like him. Actually, she hates him. Sheila wants him to be put away.
She calls him a pest.
She’s asked the town council to make a law against the goings of Big Don.

Don isn’t really the problem. His friend Tulip is. Tulip is a killer. She hunts all day, waiting for birds to get close enough to attack.

Sheila argues that Big Don, Tulip, and friends are capable of killing 134 birds per week.

Sheila wants these killers put to death, put on a leash, or left inside.
Big Don’s adoptive dad thinks that Don isn’t hurting anyone and doesn’t understand.

Sheila is scared Tulip is going to have sociopath kittens just like her. She shared statistics that one female cat can produce 20,736 cats in four years.

That’s a lot of killing.

This story made national news in Canada this week.
Not sure if this is a statement on how boring Canadians really are, how slow the news is, or how ridiculous the story really is.

Here’s the link to the story.

There’s a marketing lesson in this story.

There will be people who hate what you’re doing.

It’s not you that they hate. It’s their memories and fears you force them to revisit.
You’re just a messenger.
And like Big Don, they want to kill you.

Your words have to bond with customers in their busy lives.
Saying nothing remarkable will get you nothing.

For every crazy Sheila, there’s a mechanic and a grocery store clerk who love you and look forward to the next time they see you.

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