shallow times and shallow people
As every business owner in voice over, marketing or advertising has either used public relations for their benefit or their clients’ benefit or has been on the receiving end of a PR campaign at some level, I thought you’d find the recent experience of Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch interesting.
He received this email very recently:
From: Vanity Fair / Google
Date: August 27, 2008 9:06:32 PM PDT
To: Michael Arrington
Subject: IMPT: Google/Vanity Party Status
Reply-To: demconventionparty@google.com
Thank you for your interest in the Vanity Fair / Google Party.We have reached full capacity for this event and are unable to accommodate additional guests.
If you have NOT received a Confirmation email–separate from the automated RSVP response– and a Party admission card with your name on it, you will not be admitted to the party. No exceptions.
If you HAVE received a confirmation email but have NOT picked up your admission card, you must reference your confirmation instructions and pick up your card by 4:00pm on Thursday. Admission cards will not be distributed at the door.
If you use the shuttle service you must have your party admission card to board. No exceptions.
Thank you in advance for your understanding,
Vanity Fair & Google Events team
Sad news for Michael, had he been wrangling an invitation or had he even been aware of the event. He had neither nor was he the lone perplexed recipient of that email.
But he did write about it….and so am I.
I’ll let you draw your own correlations between a publication the likes of Vanity Fair, celebrities and politicians (and please post them here as I know they’d make great reading).
My questions (which I also hope you’ll daine to answer) are the following: is any publicity really good publicity as the old axiom goes? As long as they spell my name right?
Maybe the publicity trick fits Vanity Fair’s branding but does it fit Google’s? Obviously the message is exclusivity but is it also awareness? Would you be willing to pull such a stunt (and make no mistake, this is a stunt) with your brand? Why?
Please open your blue book and use only your No. 2 pencil to write your essay answer. You have one hour.
Begin 😉
In this day and age, if I got something about trying to get tickets to something I knew nothing about, I would have thought it was phishing. If, however, it wasn’t phishing, I would wonder about the competence of the people currently working at Vanity Fair. Do they not know who they sent invitations to? Doesn’t leave a very positive impression on me.
Hi Arlene:
Me I think they were just trying to create buzz and an air of exclusivity. But in computer tech world, Arrington creates the buzz, he shapes opinions and I think the ploy by VF backfired. What may work in Hollywood doesn’t work everywhere else…the rest of the world is not always as shallow.
Thanks so much for visiting. I hope you’ll come back often.
Best always,
– Peter