Archive for the &;publicity-stunts&; Category

Somali Pirates Smart PRMove

February 2, 2010

It had to happen.  The Somali pirates have apparently been huddling with a public relations advisor, who must have advised them to mix their kidnapping, ransom and occasional murder with charitable tithing.  &;It&;ll show another side of you,&; I&;m sure he advised. Touched by the depths of the human tragedy in Haiti, the pirates will reportedly donate some of the millions they have &;liberated&; from shipowners and &;fat cat&; corporations to Haitian relief.  While I don&;t believe a word of it (if they actually cared about relief, in Somalia charity can certainly begin at home)  there is a literary tradition in the West of the pirate with a heart of gold (not to mention Robin Hood) going back hundreds of years. But the pirates won&;t get their full PR bang for the buck, as they will use &;connections in various parts of the world&; to deliver aid without detection.  While I&;m sure the pirates are familar with Maimonides&; belief that anonymous giving is the highest form of charity,  it&;s also convenient for them, as there will be no &;accountability&; for the supposed donation.

Tags:charity, pirate-publicity-stunt, Public Relations, Somali-pirates Posted in Public Relations, publicity-stunts | Leave a Comment &;

Playboy Lied About MargeSimpson

October 20, 2009

Save your pennies at the newsstand, if you can find one.  Marge is not on the cover of my subscription copy of the November issue.  Pneumatic Alina Puscau is, in leather.

Only Marge&;s name is on the cover of my copy, despite this publicity shot.

She&;s inside, posed rather chastely in nylons and garters, and in the fake centerfold, posed with the inevitable stack &;o donuts. Her turnoffs: Slim men who work out regularly and take care of their bodies&; My turnoffs: Dying magazines that don&;t tell the truth in their publicity stunts, relentless cross-promotion with an equally aging TV show (&;Watch The Devil Wears Nada, Sunday November 15!&;), credulous news outlets that will print anything.

Tags:Alina-Puscau, death-of-magazines, Marge-Simpson-nude, Playboy Posted in death-of-magazines, publicity-stunts, Secrets of Men's Magazines, Sex and Society, Simpsons | Leave a Comment &;

Pfizer Makes Hard Times HappyTimes

May 14, 2009

Just because you&;re out of a job doesn&;t mean you have to give up sex.  That&;s right, among the drugs Pfizer is offering free to the jobless is Viagra.

Tags:Pfizer Posted in publicity-stunts, Sex and Society | Leave a Comment &;

Disney&;s Snow White, Robin HoodArrested

August 15, 2008

By dressing young protestors as Snow White, Robin Hood and Mickey Mouse, whoever stage-managed yesterday&;s demonstration for health care for Disneyland Hotel maids and cooks (the 15th this year) deserves a lot of credit for the worldwide publicity.      

     

   

    

Tags:Disney, Disneyland, public-relations-disaster, publicity-stunt Posted in Public Relations, publicity-stunts | Leave a Comment &;

Flo and Lucky: Movie Dogs Take PRTour

August 29, 2007

Yes, it&;s truly the dog days of summer. Flo and Lucky, the adorable black Labs of the Motion Picture Association of America, are doing the perfect PR tour.  A story about them ran on CBS Radio and they were featured sniffing out DVDs in luggage on the NBC morning show (Dan Glickman, head of the MPAA, has the sense to stand back and let the dogs upstage him).  The dogs even made the New York Times with their anti-piracy pitch.  (BTW, note the horrendous decline of copyediting in the so-called &;newspaper of record&;&;the paper claims the dog&;s handler, Neil Powell, is from &;Newcastle, Northern Island.&;)  Perhaps it was the IRT terrorists who battled for control of Northern Island? Yes, Flo and Lucky and the perfect spokesdogs for the MPAA.  They&;re adorable, and they don&;t say anything (or drive drunk, flash their private parts or take drugs not prescribed by their veternarian.)  So not only can their PR handlers put words in their mouths, they never have to retract the dumb things they&;ve said.

Posted in Flo-and-Lucky, MPAA, NBC-news, New-York-Times, publicity-stunts | Leave a Comment &;

Seinfeld Scores With PublicityStunt

May 31, 2007

Millions of dollars are spent on advertising, but a good publicity stunt gets attention for much less.  All it requires is clear thought and the creativity to come up with a great stunt that won&;t damage your brand. Sure, you can spend a lot of money, as did the Bee Movie producers who put Jerry Seinfeld in a bee costume and flew him down a 9-story-high wire to promote the film at Cannes. 

But timing and chutzpah can charm the press at low cost.  Recently, tenant activists ambushed their landlord, Professor Eric Sussman, at a class he was teaching at UCLA.  They presented him with a ceramic pig for raising their rents.   The stunt resulted in an LA Times story and coverage from Long Beach to San Jose, for the cost of a bus for the tenants and ten bucks for the piggy bank.  In 1999, FHM Magazine set a publicity stunt standard by projecting a 60-foot naked image of starlet Gail Porter on the side of the British House of Parliament.

Posted in Jerry-Seinfeld, Public Relations, publicity-stunts, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment &;