Is it really true that all press is good press? Here's a look at 10 of the year's craziest PR stunts.
Done well, publicity stunts can generate huge positive buzz for you and your company. But when publicity stunts turn into a complete and utter train wreck, well, you'll need to PR for your PR. And in 2011, no one demonstrated that better than these hapless publicity seekers. Here are the most memorable PR stunts from 2011 — for better or worse.
No, not that Mark Zuckerberg-- Rotem Guez, an Israeli entrepreneur who legally changed his name to Mark Zuckerberg in early December. While the bold name change is quite a stunt in and of itself, Zuckerberg #2 didn't hit the international spotlight until Facebook decided to sue his company, the Like Store, for violating its terms of service by allegedly selling "likes" to advertisers. Now, it's Zuckerberg vs. Zuckerberg, which may not be the type of publicity Zuckerberg the second had in mind. Ouch.
Presidential hopeful Herman Cain has raised more than a few eyebrows with his campaigning tactics, but it was a campaign ad posted on YouTube in October that had people talking for weeks. The video showed Cain's chief aide, Mark Block, inexplicably smoking a cigarette while talking into the camera. Is Block oblivious or brilliant? Maybe a bit of both. The video spawned a slew of online imitators, and generated about 900,000 views in its first week.
Most clothing brands pay to put their labels on the backs of celebrities. Abercrombie & Fitch took the opposite approach. In August, the retailer offered to pay Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino (of Jersey Shore fame--err, infamy) not to wear their clothing, saying “We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image,” in a press release.
Never one to be outdone, Sorrentino quickly trumped Abercrombie's stunt with, well, another stunt. In November, he slapped the chain with a $4 million lawsuit, accusing Abercrombie of trademark infringement, unfair competition and false description. He claims that he's entitled to a share of whatever profits Abercrombie gets from it's "distancing" maneuver. Abercrombie can't be too concerned that Sorrentino is sullying its brand: They're selling graphic tees that use his trademark phrases, such as "GTL" and "The Fitchuation." Sorrentino now says he wants a share in the profits from those, too.
Enrico Frare, an Italian entrepreneur that runs E-group, a small clothing company, was desperate to "draw attention to the difficulty Italian businesses are having getting credit right now," according to NPR. In late November, the 36-year-old took out a full page ad in a Milan newspaper, posing in the nude alongside the caption "Every day in Italy an entrepreneur risks losing his shirt."
In August, Rotterdam tattoo artist Dex Moelker took the international spotlight when one of his clients posted a picture of her arm that had been tattooed with 152 profile pictures from her friend's Facebook accounts. The photo went viral, capturing headlines on CNN and Fox. But a day later, Moelker came clean with the Dutch newspaper Telegraaf. "It is a try out tattoo, a transfer, that washes off in a couple of days," he said.
Upon meeting a politician for the first time, most CEOs would present them with a plaque or some other small gift. As if anyone needs reminding, Groupon founder Andrew Mason is not your typical CEO. When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited Groupon’s Chicago headquarters in August, Mason produced the most unlikely of gifts: a pony. "[Mason] had originally planned to give the mayor a puppy, but decided that a pony would be even more memorable," Vanity Fair noted in its profile of Mason. "'I mean, it’s such a heavy thing to gift someone,'" Mason told a reporter. "I thought it would be funny to give it to somebody as busy as the mayor."
When you have the cash to do it, there's no greater publicity stunt than the pure and simple glee of throwing something really expensive out of an airplane and filming it. So for the launch of its Sonic sedan, Chevrolet sent one of the new cars hurtling through the bright blue yonder. The YouTube video has picked up millions of views since being posted on Oct. 25th. Chevy's ad director told Automotive News that the company is hoping to attract the 18-30 demographic who don't "have the history necessarily or even the baggage you might say that a lot of the more traditional consumers might have." One small quibble, though: The parachute deploys, but the ending is suspiciously absent. Does the car land safely or does it crash? Guess we'll never know.
Rapper Kanye West is no stranger to pulling stunts in front of huge crowds, so it was hard to be surprised in October, when he showed up at an Occupy Wall Street protest in Manhattan reportedly sporting $25,000 worth of gold chains and a mouth full of gold teeth. Blogs and news websites immediately blasted West for touting the spoils of the one percent at a rally advocating fairness for the 99 percent. All press is good press, right?
One night in late October, a group of LAN airline flight attendants were eating dinner at an upscale Latin restaurant in New York City. Suddenly, the restaurant manager got on a microphone and announced to that not only was LAN giving every flight attendant there a free airline ticket, but that the every single diner would be getting a free ticket too. It was a moment close to Oprah Winfrey's "free car for everyone in the audience" stunt, and the Chile-based company got a few days of glowing press out of it.
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