CINCINNATI — Cincinnati's Gorilla Glue company has been in the news a lot in recent weeks, and not for a good reason.
Unless you've been under a rock, you've heard about Tessica Brown's bad hair day, caused by an attempt to straighten her hair with Gorilla Glue.
It was even lampooned by Saturday Night Live (see it here).
The publicity seemed to be the worst thing the Cincinnati-based company could possibly want.
Local fans of the product worried.
"Its a great product," one woman told us outside Lowe's."I wouldn't use it on my hair, though!"
"I think it's gonna hurt them, to be honest," another shopper told us. "I think it's gonna hurt Gorilla Glue."
Bad news boosts sales
Normally bad publicity is bad news for companies, but not this time.
That's according toAd Age magazine,which looked at Amazon sales data for the past month.
It claims sales at the Springdale-based company have soared since the incident.
Ad Age says Gorilla's Amazon best-seller rank has more than doubled, with Google searches up 50 percent as well.
Kurt Keely -- manager of Woods Hardware in Lockland -- is not surprised.
"It's a local company that just produces great products. So it's a great sell," he said.
Keely says Gorilla Glue in recent years has expanded well beyond that bubbly brown glue it started with.
He said it now makes spray glue, all colors of duct tape, super glue, and clear glue that doesn't expand (so you can finally fix broken ceramic mugs with it).
"They now sell super glues. They went into sealing tape, caulking, so Gorilla has just grown over the years. It's a great product. When you buy Gorilla Glue it will work for you," Keely said.
Now, he says, America knows just how good the stuff is.
"When you see the success of a local company, it just helps everybody else out," Keely said.
We called and emailed Gorilla Glue management, but have not heard back from what is known as a very private company.
Gorilla Glue is apparently letting the hair affair speak for itself, not commenting on the case or its aftermath.
Ad Age, meantime, says the company has not increased its advertising one dollar this month.
That probably means they don't want to waste their money.
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