Grandmother is Grand Moth LoverWealthy widow funds expensive PR campaign for mothsMoth placement in 50 Cent video aims for street credibility, while print ads feature model in sexy moth bikini with invisible strings.Marjorie McDonald has a very unique bumper sticker on the back of her SUV. She had to cut up three different stickers to make her unusual proclamation: "I Love Moths." Nobody sells such a bumper sticker, and McDonald blames a widespread anti-moth attitude. "Most people see moths as the bats of the insect world," she claims. McDonald recently inherited tens of millions of dollars from her father, who made a fortune in the pine-bark mulch business.Rather than donating money to marginally help a big cause, like cancer research, she chose instead to provide radical help for a cause that didn't exist?until she created it. McDonald hired SLK Communications in Boston to create a national campaign to boost the image, and hopefully the treatment, of moths. SLK is trying to position the moth as tough and masculine for men, yet sexy and mysterious for women. The aggressive marketing strategy was McDonald's idea. She sees moths as gender-neutral, unlike butterflies, which she calls "decidedly feminine." McDonald, who is called "The Moth Lady " by friends and neighbors, believes that moths are tough and strong; yet delicate, mysterious and sexy. According to spokeswoman Carol Brown, SLK welcomed the marketing challenge. "It's a versatile insect, with enormous untapped marketing potential. An upcoming 50 Cent video, we think, will highlight the strength and toughness of the moth. But in magazines, you'll see the delicate, mysterious and sexy side of the moth. Women's magazines like Cosmo and men's magazines like Maxim will feature ads with the headline "Sexy Insects of the Night." In the ads, a beautiful model poses wearing a skimpy moth bikini with invisible straps. SLK would not comment about the guerilla-marketing component of its moth campaign. But McDonald was particularly excited about using this aggressive new method, and she let a few details slip out. "What SLK can do, is they can use guerilla marketing to get to all the trendsetters when they're young. They're telling me that in five to ten years, teenagers, instead of saying "that's cool," they'll be saying "that's moth." Right now moths have a terrible reputation. SLK explored this aspect of their challenge by focusing on common expressions that involve moths. They found that, for butterflies, the most common expression was, "Look! There's a beautiful butterfly." For moths, it was "Honey, I'll be right there after I kill this moth." McDonald's first effort to improve the image of moths came more than 25 years ago. "The Spirit of the Moth" was a short book she self-published, but it only sold nine copies. One copy was infamously discovered in the apartment of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. "I don't think I really got the message out there with the book," McDonald said. But she is upbeat about the potential impact for the most expensive image makeover in insect marketing history. "I envision a day when moths are represented favorably in gummy fruit-flavored snacks, cereals, plastic toys, jewelry, coloring books and, especially, children's books," she said. "Children will read books like, ?Timmy and the Friendly Moth' and teenagers will read books like ?Chronicles of the Wise Moth Brigade.' Nervous high school kids will give speeches and then complain afterwards about having moths in their throat. And one day I'll see an attractive woman with a moth tattoo on her ankle." While McDonald's expectations may be high, there is no denying her passion and commitment to all that is moth.