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by
Marcia
Yudkin
Who
says publicity stunts are passe?
Outrageous staged events designed
solely to show up on the evening
news still get the job done when
they're clever and fun.
Stan Heimowitz, owner of Celebrity
Gems in Castro Valley, California,
last year successfully dramatized
in the streets of San Francisco
the fact that IntraLinux, a small
software company -- Heimowitz's
client -- was challenging
Microsoft, the industry giant.
Outside the Moscone Center in San
Francisco, where Microsoft was
launching its latest operating
system, a Bill Gates look-alike
was matched against a Penguin (IntraLinux's
mascot) in a boxing ring whose
four corners were held up by
Penguinettes. The Penguin pinned
Gates, naturally, while a plane
towing a banner that read "IntraLinux"
flew overhead.
This creative bit of street
theater made its point to
onlookers and the media alike.
Publicity stunts go back at least
to the days of showman P.T.
Barnum, who announced his circus'
arrival in town by hitching an
elephant to a plow beside the
train tracks. This raised such a
ruckus that it's still reportedly
against the law in North Carolina
to plow a field with an elephant.
Suspense became an element in a
stunt featured on the front page
of the Los Angeles Times in 1980
when the paper challenged Bob
Allen to make good on his boast
that he could be dropped into any
city with $100 and 72 hours later
own several properties without
paying down payments. While
readers wondered if Allen could
really do it, the author of
Nothing Down indeed pulled it off.
Attention-getting can go high-brow
too, as when actor Norman George,
who portrays Edgar Allen Poe in a
one-man show, persuaded the city
of Boston to rename Carver Street,
where the creator of "The
Raven" was born, for the poet
in connection with the 180th
anniversary of Poe's birth in
1989.
The same dramatic elements come
into play every year when we have
another Take Our Daughters to Work
Day. The media get to shoot
colorful, charming footage of
young girls in places they don't
normally visit, and then they can
add a smidgeon of controversy by
quoting people who think girls
don't deserve favoritism over
boys.
Publicity stunts and milder
special events aren't ever a sure
thing. Your parade can get rained
on and a breaking news story
elsewhere can pull the media away.
When Massachusetts retailer Rick
Segel sponsored a gala contest for
the Best Hairdresser of Medford,
the fur coats that bore
contestants' numbers got switched,
causing prizes to be awarded to
the wrong people. Two judges
walked out and fistfights almost
broke out among the hairdressers.
Despite the risks, Stan Heimowitz
had such a hoot with his
IntraLinux Penguin vs. Gates bout
that he floated himself as a
publicity-stunt impresario to PR
and ad agencies. The whole event
cost just $3,700 including the
actors and costumes, Heimowitz
says. Compare that to the cost of
a color magazine ad that gets two
seconds of a reader's attention!
Publicity
guru Marcia Yudkin is the author
of
Poor Richard's Web Site
Marketing Makeover: Improve Your
Message and Turn Visitors into
Buyers,
and PR
For the Internet Age,
along with numerous
other books
and reports.
Write her at marcia@yudkin.com
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