Sing…sing a song…sing out loud!

By Len Gutman on October 29th, 2009 In Hype!

I’m fascinated by the latest trend in non-violent protest and political persuasion. No, I’m not talking about marching around with signs like those “old-school” protesters. In fact, I’m not talking about talking at all…I’m talking about singing! Witness the latest effort of a group calling themselves “Billionaires for Wealthcare” at the recent annual meeting of health care industry lobbying group AHIP:

Is this an effective tactic? Does it have non-political application? Would you stop traffic in downtown Phoenix by breaking into song and dance about Chompies bagels or NYPD Pizza?

I’m serious. Flash mobs seem rather innocuous and dull compared to flash-musicals. You could really pull off a great stunt like this. How about a little “spontaneous” musical number at Sheriff Joe’s next press conference promoting an upcoming performance of West Side Story. I’m sure he’d love a little rumble between the Jets and the Sharks. Or dare I say it — I Like to be in America!

Sing…sing a song…sing out loud!

Comments

Barb Harris Says:
October 29th, 2009 at 7:59 am

much like the grocery store produce section musical floating around the internet right now. let’s just NOT use any songs from Annie!

Marketing $ociologist Says:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:42 am

Even “beatniks” are using YouTube!

One of the biggest protests and public relations “stunts” has been Dave Carroll’s “United Breaks Guitars.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Check Taylor Guitar’s golden opportunity for gathering GREAT publicity (without one press release). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n12WFZq2__0

Yesterday’s unemployment #s show Arizona – percentage wise – #1 again. It doesn’t need to be this way.

Early 2007 I had an epiphany when I followed the YouTube weekly series of Hammer and Coop. At that point I threw away press release thinking and adopted 21st Century marketing tools, including MySpace and YouTube; Twitter was unknown at the time and Facebook was for my teenage son hitting on girls.

The reason our economy is so bad: alleged forward thinking marketers threw me out of their offices when I advocated 21st Century marketing in preference to tried-and-true press releases.

Yet today when you turn on television news (since print is dead – even Seth Godin says so), you see wedding dancers, a world music project, all YouTube videos. Bloggers like myself live and breathe because of YouTube videos. Now “beatniks” are posting their protests via YouTube.

When are corporations going to demand more of their public relations practitioners than press release thinking; improving the corporate bottom line by adopting 21st Century marketing tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and on and on?

Richard Kelleher, M.B.A.
MediaRelationsExpert.com
@PhoenixRichard

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