Dawn Shears

I live on the beautiful, northwest Oregon coast in an area that boast 3 little towns (Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler) on a 6 mile stretch along the 101.  Rainforest, sand dunes, farms, rivers and bays abound…it’s a natural paradise but quite wild and rugged, too. 

I believe there are less than 2,000 full-time residents, in all three towns.  Tourism is an important source of revenue and most homes are second homes.  Winter months can be trying for the residents who live here year-round…  As a new full-time resident, I can fully attest to that! 

Financial challenges, isolation and stormy, rainy weather can test even the stoutest…and the current economic climate has added a challenging twist for us all.

That being said, we are not easily discouraged.  Residents remain optimistic and I have found that they can be quite creative with efforts to bolster morale.  Well, hell, they are just creative no matter what.  The latest of these creative endeavors has turned out to be quite newsworthy. 

Andy Norris, a resident filmmaker, had the idea to gather a group of locals in a visible, public place every week to stand there and just laugh for a few minutes.  This smacks of the Flash Mob phenomen that I’ve read about in the past.  The funny thing really is that what started out as a whim and a fun idea ended up capturing more PR and media interest than expected.   I gathered that Andy would have loved to have had this kind of media attention when he released his last (excellent)  film, “Source to Sea.” 

What can we learn about from this about marketing?  I think that if you follow your instincts and your bliss you cannot go wrong.  If you are doing what you love to do and talking and writing about it it’s bound to eventually make waves and gather attention.

Read about Andy Norris’ Manzanita, Oregon Laugh In here: 
The Oregonian
The Wall Street Journal

The weekly Laugh In is held every Thursday at 12:05 pm in front of Mother Nature’s Foods:  298 Laneda, Manzanita, Oregon.  Costumes are encouraged.