Pr, publicity and a get out clause

[matgb]

Hmm, a little behind on this one^[2]. How about this for a publicity stunt? The Get Out Clause^[1] are a Manchester based band who, apparently, are a bit skint, so rather than hire a video producer, they wandered around Manchester with some kit and performed in front of CCTV, then used some FoI to get hold of the footage, and edit it together to get this (you might want to turn the volume down, not my sort of thing anyway):

"Alternative Science Fiction/Double Feature" (Watch on YouTube)

Not a bad little video on zero budget, right? Um, well, according to a comment on the YouTube page:

They have admitted it was all a hoax a PA stunt to get them attention. Good on them it worked, It made me look.

Which makes sense, as if they haven't got the cash for a crew, they probably can't afford the £10 per request for the 80 different cameras they performed in front of, right? Still, it got them some good media coverage right?

Hmm, think the kudos for that go to their PR firm^[3], who used to handle such failures as, well Oasis. Hmm, publicity stunt? I think so. Well done? I also think so.

Initially via theweaselking

---

[1] Really shitty website. Really bad. Sorry. But their MySpace is non-ugly.

[2] Tom Watson, MP and Govt Minister wrote about them a few days back and if a Govt minister has heard of a new band before me I'm really out of touch.

[3] Whose site, will a bit bare as a site, is a damn fine example of Writing for the Web, using some interesting tricks to keep the attention of the reader.

Comments

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

I know you have a distaste for Oasis, and I'm not that keen on them myself, but it's hardly right to label that band as a failure. They must've sold millions of albums by now.

[matgb]

*cough*
really? Didn't know that at all. Had no clue whatsoever that that Gallagher's were loaded.
*cough*
or maybe that's sorta the point given the PR success of this story?

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

Give me a break, it was quarter to seven in the morning! How am I meant to know the difference between sarcasm and.. uh.. not... at that sort of hour?!

*pout*

[matgb]

The moral of this story, of course, is never to go online before youve had your coffee ;-)

(although it's not as clearly a joke as it could be I guess, then again, I wrote it way past midnight so meh)

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

I don't have coffee till about 10am. I'm still in need of more, but I won't have any till... tomorrow now!

If I start snoring, they'll wake me up.