No-bama Nozzles and Red Hats: Compeau's Humorous Advertising Approach
Jun 12, 2024
Kelly Tshibaka and Niki Tshibaka
Can a small business thrive amidst political turbulence and economic challenges? Join us as we unpack this question with Craig Campo, a third-generation Alaskan and the creative force behind Campo's power sports dealership in Fairbanks. Craig shares his unique experiences navigating the shifts from the Trump administration to Biden's, revealing how the power sports industry experienced an unexpected boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll explore how he adapted to inflation and rising interest rates under Biden's tenure, and learn about his ingenious marketing strategies, including his humorous "No-bama nozzle" ad campaign that cleverly pokes fun at government regulations while driving sales.
In the second segment, we bring you the inspiring story of Kreiner's Diner in Anchorage, Alaska, a business that bravely defied extreme lockdown measures to stay open despite facing hefty fines. This chapter celebrates the resilience and courage of business owners who stand their ground, highlighting the indispensable role of community support. By drawing parallels between the diner’s determination and Craig's innovative advertising, we underscore the unyielding spirit of American entrepreneurs. Tune in to discover how creativity and community solidarity can triumph even in the most challenging circumstances.
Can a small business thrive amidst political turbulence and economic challenges? Join us as we unpack this question with Craig Campo, a third-generation Alaskan and the creative force behind Campo's power sports dealership in Fairbanks. Craig shares his unique experiences navigating the shifts from the Trump administration to Biden's, revealing how the power sports industry experienced an unexpected boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll explore how he adapted to inflation and rising interest rates under Biden's tenure, and learn about his ingenious marketing strategies, including his humorous "No-bama nozzle" ad campaign that cleverly pokes fun at government regulations while driving sales.
In the second segment, we bring you the inspiring story of Kreiner's Diner in Anchorage, Alaska, a business that bravely defied extreme lockdown measures to stay open despite facing hefty fines. This chapter celebrates the resilience and courage of business owners who stand their ground, highlighting the indispensable role of community support. By drawing parallels between the diner’s determination and Craig's innovative advertising, we underscore the unyielding spirit of American entrepreneurs. Tune in to discover how creativity and community solidarity can triumph even in the most challenging circumstances.
Welcome back to Stand, where we help make courage contagious. I'm your host, kelly Chewbacca, former US Senate candidate in Alaska and a government watchdog. I am joined by my co-host, my son Josiah Chewbacca, so happy to have you with me today, and this is going to be another amazing episode of Stand. We're talking to you today from the 49th state, the last frontier of Alaska. You can be one of our standouts by going to wwwstandshoworg. That's where you can find all of our fantastic past episodes or our social media channels. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and become one of our standouts. We'd love to have you join us. Speaking of joining us, we're going to have Alan Dershowitz, trump's former impeachment attorney, in his defense trial, also a Fox News contributor and a bestselling author, in Anchorage, alaska, on June 27th. Get your tickets on our website, stanshoworg. You will not want to miss this amazing event.
Speaker 1:
And another amazing event is our interview today with Craig Campo. He is a third-generation Alaskan, an amazing businessman, the proud owner of Campo's in Fairbanks. This is a power sports dealer serving Fairbanks, north Pole and Interior Alaska since 1945. Wasn't that the Hoover administration, truman Truman administration a long time ago? You can check out Compos services and sales at composcom I'm going to spell that for you C-O-M-P-E-A-U-S composcom because you can get their products even if you don't live in Fairbanks. So why do we have Craig on stand today? Here at Stand, we are building a movement of everyday Americans who take a stand boldly for freedom, truth and government by the people, and Craig is one of those everyday American heroes. We've invited him on to share with you what he is doing in Fairbanks at his business and as an everyday American. Craig thanks so much for being with us on stand.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, Kelly.
Speaker 1:
We're excited to have you. So you're a lifelong Alaskan. You've descended from Alaskans who have come up to Alaska and started Compost way back in 45. And you've been able to witness evolution of the company all the way, from different aspects and different administrations and different seasons. But I wanted to ask you just to start this out, because we're going to talk a lot about politics and business today what has been different at Compos under the Trump administration, who I love, and the Biden administration, which I don't love. What's been different from your perspective between the Trump and Biden administration as a business owner?
Speaker 2:
Well, first of all, we have that in common. I love the Trump administration as well, and one thing you know, I tell a lot of people kind of under my breath COVID was the best thing that ever happened to our business.
Speaker 2:
You know there's a lot of businesses that suffered restaurants, tourism, everything else. The power sports industry exploded everywhere across the country and it's because people were at home, stuck at home, whether they wanted to be or not, and they were stuck home with the kids. Well, what do they need? They need to get outside. What do they need to get outside? They need a toy, a four-wheeler, a snow machine, and it just exploded. People realized how important family time was, how important it was to spend family time, and nobody was flying Alaska Airlines. Nobody was flying.
Speaker 2:
So all that revenue came in, funneled into the power sports business and for three years it was just insane. It was exceptional, even during the worst of it under Trump, you know, when things were the worst. It did carry over in the biden administration, but I'm not giving him any credit because we have seen now, with interest rates and inflation and people having to choose you know it's I think it's 1261 dollars for a family of four it has gone up. Cost of living has gone up for a family of four, uh, just since the day Biden took office. So we are seeing a slowdown in our big ticket items the boats, the things where interest rates are more sensitive, so we're having to market harder and more creatively. And that's kind of what you asked me to talk about was how do we keep that momentum going, even that COVID's over right?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so you have a little bit of a marketing genius that you've tapped into. I just want to say for everybody listening that I'm really grateful that Compose is one of our sponsors so you can see some of their marketing genius in our ads at our break. But what I love about you is how you handle political issues with humor and then you tie that into promoting your brand and your products at Compose. So you've recently released an ad making fun of government approved gas can nozzles that empty in over six minutes, and instead you have an exclusive gas can fast pour nozzle called the no-bama the no-bama nozzle. It empties in only 35 seconds. So we're going to take a second to roll that ad.
Speaker 2:
If anyone ever told you the government was here to help, look what they did with the five-gallon nozzle. And these are our fast-pour Nobama nozzles. They empty in 35 seconds versus over six minutes for those government-approved nozzles that look like some sort of I don't know alien contraceptive device. Yeah, and for all you flaming liberal greenies, relax, it's just a red hat. The Nobama nozzle exclusively at Campos.
Speaker 1:
An Obama nozzle exclusively at Campos, All right.
Speaker 2:
Now that we've seen this no-bama nozzle ad, craig, tell us what inspired you to market in this way. Well, just frustration. For example, I've always said, like it says in the ad, if your government tells you they're here to help, look what they did to the five-gallon jug. They totally screwed it up. It's all about somebody somewhere did something stupid. So the government said no, we've got to protect everybody and that's the overreach and the type of regulation and job-creating bureaucracy that one device can cause, and everybody knows it.
Speaker 2:
It's kind of the shining example of government is the five-gallon jug. In my opinion, you can't pour it. So I said let's make some fun, let's point a little fun at it At the same time, market something we're selling, and it was our number one selling item on our table at the outdoor show this year. People love them and all they do is they look at it. You can just see in their face oh yeah, I need one of those. That's great, you know, and it's just an easy fix for an over complex problem. There's still nine states it's illegal to sell those in not alaska, fortunately. But that's how. That's how screwed up the government is is it illegal because they're called Nobama?
Speaker 2:
No, that's our name. We've just rebranded them as Nobama nozzles. We have a sticker that says Nobama. I've got people that buy them just to hang them in the man cave because they like to show off the Nobama nozzle.
Speaker 1:
It's just illegal because of overregulation of government.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, in certain areas you have to use this government-approved device. People, you have to use this government-approved device that you know. People wind up kicking those cans and throwing them and breaking them because it's just frustrating. First you can't figure it out and then you can't get fuel to pour out of it and, if you can, your clothes go out of style while you're waiting to fill your lawnmower.
Speaker 3:
You know which is now illegal, right? You know, mr Campo, I'm kind of a budding business in myself. I want to go to school and study business and I want to go into entrepreneurship and I've talked with a lot of business people and, universally, a piece of advice that they almost always give me is don't mix politics with business. But you have kind of thrown that to the wind and just totally mixed politics with your business. What's your, what are your thoughts on that? And have you ever gotten backlash for your political views.
Speaker 2:
Um, I, we have way more support than we do. Backlash, when we run a controversial ad. Um, the people that complain are people that have never we check their names they've never, ever done business with us. That they're they're. They like to complain. Our, our market is pretty much conservative outdoor, leave me alone independent folks. Those people love our commercials, love our products. Uh, they understand.
Speaker 2:
And and when you say backlash, most of the backlash we get like when we ran the don young commercial, uh, I call it the don young, but the? Um, the old timers commercial around the campfire, the hot dog commercial, um, the, the backlash we got again was maybe one out of a hundred negative. We had a hundred people saying when are you going to air that again? I want to see that again. You know so. So I don't care about the one out of 100. They're not going to make or break my business, but we got a lot of kudos and congratulations and hey, that was the funniest thing I ever saw. And I think in this environment, in this, in this political environment, we don't laugh enough. Everything is so serious. Everybody's walking on eggshells. They're afraid to say how they really feel and we just thought, you know, let's throw caution to the wind and it's working.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, humor and politics is a good way to mix. And for those who don't know what Craig's talking about, you can catch that old timers ad on our social media pages, because that's where Compose is sponsoring us. That's the ad that we're playing and that's on our Kelly for Alaska pages. You can click the links at Stan show dot org to see those ads. We appreciate that, but I think you're on to something, craig.
Speaker 1:
I mean, something I've noticed is that there's a little bit of a reluctance here in the People's Republic of Anchorage. There's just a lot of reluctance by businessmen and business people and attorneys, doctors et cetera, to let their color show, if they are Republican or lean conservative or support President Trump, because they will be canceled or really persecuted and you know file complaints filed against them or serial complaints filed against them to try and put them out of business, and that they're just afraid to make their business suffer. And I was in conversation with one of these people who was trying to mask as moderate or camouflage and just not be at all public and my argument was look, there is a huge market for going public with your true colors and just saying it's essentially a business cost to take on the complaints and the lawfare that'll come, but you will have so much more business and so much more support, because there's nobody out there saying I'm the guy who, like you're doing, I'm going to, in humor, say I'm out there, this is who I am. I'm going to, in humor, say I'm out there, this is who I am. I'm planting my flag on this side of the line and we need to have a little bit of fun about this. But if you're looking for the conservative power sports dealer, that's me. If you're looking for every other person selling cars, selling services, being an attorney, selling goods, then you can go to every other store. But if you're looking for the Republican, that's me, because we just don't have enough of them.
Speaker 1:
And it reminds me of the Kreiner's Diner story, which I know a lot of people in Alaska know. But Kreiner's Diner is this average, is what they pride themselves on diner that I love, I know you love and could go there and eat every day. But when they had the extreme lockdowns from the leftists here in Anchorage, they refused to comply. They just stayed open and then the city of Anchorage came against them with massive fines I think it was $10,000 a day to stay open, and I mean this business was going to shut down, but instead this subset community kept them open, rallied around them and kept them open, and Kreiner's Diner is still open today. That's what I'm talking about that there is a subset of support for people doing exactly what you're doing, if they have the courage to take the stand for what they believe. I think that there's a lot of people who want to see business owners having the kind of courage that you have.
Speaker 1:
So, craig Campos Camposcom, we'll be right back after this break to hear more. I want to share with you more of the humorous and ingenious ads that craig has produced, so we'll catch those ads right after this break. You're on stand show with kelly and today, josiah chabaka. All our episodes stand showorg. And catch craig's ads on our social media sites. Those links are on our website as well. We'll be back right after this stand by.