Former Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe took to Facebook this week to share a brilliant piece of marketing written by his friend's 11-year-old daughter. Charlotte McCourt knows how to sell Girl Scout cookies with the best tool she's got: the truth.
"I would like to tell you about the cookies themselves, for some of the descriptions I am afraid [to] use false advertising," she wrote in an email to another of her dad's friends. Though we wish we could hear Charlotte herself read the letter aloud, we have to settle for the TV host-turned-podcaster. These are her brutally honest reviews.
Savannah Smiles: "Like sweet lemon wedges with just the right balance of sweet and sour. This cookie gets a 7 for its divine taste."
Trefoils: "This is a plain peanut butter cookie that pairs nicely with a hot drink. I give it a 6 because ... it's kind of boring."
Do-Si-Dos: "I give it a 5 for its unoriginality and its blandness."
Samoas: "Wow, the Samoa. I give it a 9 for its amazing flavor."
Tagalongs: "I give it an 8 for its chocolate peanut butter combination. Inspired."
Thin Mints: "I give it a 9 for the delectable chocolate mint combination. Also inspired."
S'mores: "If you have a wild sense of adventure, try the S'more. Full disclosure, I have not tried the S'more."
Toffee-tastic: "The Toffee-tastic is a bleak, flavorless gluten-free wasteland. I'm telling you it's as flavorless as dirt."
"My name is Charlotte, and I love being honest with my clients," she says in conclusion.
The standard sales tactic for Girl Scouts involves the appeal of their cuteness in door-to-door sales, or at stands outside the supermarket. There is also the making-your-parents-beg-their-coworkers route, which banks on grownups fondly remembering the cookies of their youth. This might be the better option, judging by the fact by Thursday, a day after Rowe posted the video, they had already sold over 7,000 boxes. The video has reached 7.2 million views, and many commenters on Facebook are asking viewers to buy from their local troops instead of from Charlotte.
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While Charlotte asks her reader to make a purchase to support American troops abroad, Rowe suggests buyers reward her for her honesty, a rather undervalued trait these days.
"Send the message that when you tell the truth, good things happen," he said.