Stunts

Murphy-Goode Winery's publicity stunt begins broadly today, as candidates compete for a 6-month, $10,000 a month job by submitting one-minute video entries to AReallyGoodeJob.com. They're looking for someone to live rent free at the vineyard, and manage their Facebook and Twitter presence. Locals got a one day head start by visiting a San Francisco hotel yesterday to pick up a special code for the site.

It's a great publicity stunt that began slowly till Mashable got a hold of it, prompting over 800 direct retweets on Twitter, countless more mentions causing "Get Paid $10k a Month" to trend right along with the Swine Flu.

The announcement hit Murphy-Goode's Facebook page on April 21st, and was followed by a press release the next day.

The video above features beautiful b-roll from Sonoma, and wraps up with a guy--presumably the owner--saying the URL with hot chicks on either arm. So not necessary.

We wonder why the vineyard is walling off the entries till they pick their top 50, and not pumping them to Facebook via YouTube, and letting the people decide who's the best. It would boost the Fan count far beyond its current 147; it would be a user-generated lovefest. Regardless, bottoms-up, cheers, chin-chin and salute for the clever stunt that married two white-hot topics: Twitter and jobs.

PRNewser loves a good publicity stunt, and in our opinion a list of the top 50 isn't nearly enough, especially when done from a British perspective.

U.K. consumer PR agency Taylor Herring assembled their picks for the best of the best, and we can't blame them for putting in a few of their own such as floating an fake iceberg with polar bear down the Thames to promote the launch of eden TV (reaching 260 million people), and flying a Spider Pig to promote the Simpsons Movie DVD. According to that case study, "we employed a marksman to be on hand to take the pig down in case it attempted an escape". Now that's thorough planning.

The list is chock full of one-off classics such as the Beatles' final concert atop the Apple Records office, the Britney / Madonna makeout, and the Blair Witch Project, perhaps the most successful stunt dollar for dollar (incidentally created by Mike Monello who went on to found Camfire, a firm I freelanced for last summer).

Other stunts went on to become institutions like the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, the Tour de France and even the FBI's Most Wanted List. The list doesn't include the craven classic "Torches of Freedom," a stunt created by the father of PR Edward Bernays to get women to take up smoking.

[The Clean Green Vermont Alliance's car of the future, debuted on April Fool's day]

Below is a selection of April Fool's PR campaigns that dropped yesterday, including the launch of an entire clean energy campaign in Vermont, complete with a mascot-car that can continue to make appearances at State fairs, picnics and parades.

Chegg Inc., the "Netflix of texbooks" went with edible editions, and landed in the WSJ's Venture Capital Dispatch, and TechCrunch's massive Fool's roundup. Chegg is a Porter Novelli client.

The very real U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association (LetsMow.com) went with a seemingly feasible Hall of Fame announcement. The Seattle Times put it at the top of their Sideline Chatter column. Founder and President Bruce "Mr. Mow it All" Kaufman sent this one along personally.

Though I don't see any takers in the media, people might sign up for socially networked weddings from Wedded Marketing. The company morphed its name for a day from Webbed.

GreenFeet.com went with a variety of hoaxey enviro-products including biodegradable wedding rings that break down from anger and contempt, and PEU Sunless Tanner (elephant poop). They snagged a mention in TreeHugger and some nice tweets and Facebook action.

Leave it to the activists to go all out. The newly-launched The Clean Green Vermont Alliance put ads in the local papers, held a rally and parked a seriously jacked 1972 Pontiac Le Mans in the middle of Burlington to make a point about the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant of the same vintage. The stunt was supported by 72GoodAsNew.com, highlighting all the amazing technology of that time period. The Burlington Free-Press and a some local political blogs wrote it up.

Meanwhile, BusinessWire got in touch to say they weren't accepting any tomfoolery and were on high alert. Their Senior VP of Marketing Thomas Becktold even sent along a statement (after the jump):

continued...

[Steve Long, top headhunter via GameZine UK]

CapCom's contest in London yesterday for the launch of Resident Evil 5 almost went off without a hitch yesterday. Participants were given clues and sent off on a nearly literal scavenger hunt--for severed body parts. Steve Long won a trip for two to Africa for his ability to sniff out the rotting bits.

The faux-flesh was harmless, since you know, severed limbs in a city environment don't evoke panic, except that chicken livers were used to make the gore more realistic. A few went missing, probably dragged away by stray cats.

Joystiq urged Londoners not to eat the lost props.

We're hoping you caught the sarcasm in the title of this post. In all seriousness, however, news moves so fast these days that posting about Skittles today feels in a way like posting a story on Obama's campaign victory a week later.

We digress. Certainly, you have heard of Skittles PR stunt that began yesterday. The candy maker re-skinned Skittles.com to display only the Twitter search result page for the keyword Skittles. So, you go to Skittles.com to see what people are saying about Skittles on Twitter, when what they are talking about on Twitter is that Skittles re-skinned it's homepage to display only the search result page for the keyword Skittles. And so the cycle continues.

Confused yet? It's ok, so is everyone else, it seems. Some are calling it "the worst thing to ever happen to social media branding," while others say the re-skin is the "ultimate Twitter viral campaign."

Regardless, many are saying the idea was stolen from Modernista, which did the same thing a year ago.

As David Aramano, VP of Experience Design for Critical Mass writes, "...the story is bigger than what Skittles or Modernista! have done and the punditry that will inevitably swirl around it. The big takeaway is that the traditional (yes, this includes digital) model is being disrupted before our eyes. Business as usual used to mean a Flash and promo heavy website for a brand like skittles, and now it looks entirely different. And it doesn't mean it will work either. Do people really want to engage with a brand like this on Facebook, a ecosystem built primarily for managing your social and professional life?"

We agree with Armano, namely with the point that there are bigger issues at play here than this specific effort from Skittles. Also, it bears asking, what were/are the goals of the campaign? Generate a ton of link love, SEO and online conversation for the brand while experimenting in social media? Ok. It seems that Agency.com, the agency responsible for the campaign wouldn't go on the record with Advertising Age. Digital Editor Abbey Klaassen cited an "Agency.com spokeswoman" with the following statement: "Skittles as a brand is all about embracing and empowering the conversation online -- just look at the YouTube entries and their Facebook page. Its kind of a natural evolution for them moving in to something like this."

Think you spent a lot of time on the couch this past week? Think again. 47-year-old Conde Nast research librarian Stan Friedman held on to his title of "Ultimate Couch Potato," after beating out four contenders in a competition at the Times Square ESPN Zone to see who could watch sports longest without falling asleep. Friedman clocked in at 18 hours, 48 minutes and 17 seconds.

Still, he didn't even come close to 2008 Chicago winner Jeff Miller who won the competition after clocking in 40 hours and 30 minutes.

[NYDN, Gothamist]

Janeen Mansour, bombshell host of Dubai.TV wants you to throw some shoes this Saturday to raise money for the Salvation Army, according to a press release issued today.

Dubai.TV, the English-language portal for the "city of gold" hired LA-based Mayo Communications (warning, pop-ups and automatic funky music upon click-through) to promote the event at the Racho Park Golf Course on Pico Boulevard from Noon to 2 PM.

So far many bold names have been officially invited--including presser shoe dodger George W. Bush--but few have accepted, save Eduardo Garcia, who had a small but scary role in "No Country for Old Men" as "Aqua" man.

More details and contact information can be found in the media alert.

Music, fashion, fragrance, and booze mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs wants to help the city of New York with a contribution of $1 million dollars in exchange for changing the New Year's ball from white to blue to promote his Ciroc vodka brand.

In the above unscripted "long ass blog" message to Mayor Michael Bloomberg from his kitchen, Diddy also wants you to look out for his street teams who will be handing out $15 debit cards to help you get home safely after the drop.

This is one of the many Diddy-stunts put forth since the Trump of hip-hop took over brand management duties for Ciroc in the Fall of 2007 in exchange for a 50/50 profit split.

Ciroc is imported to the U.S. by Diageo Spirits, a client of Taylor PR. You can find Taylor's press release on the offer complete with artist's rendering of the blue ball here.

(The King's Flame)

On the heels of the mockumentary Whopper Virgins, Burger King is launching an actual beef-scented cologne to grab attention, and keep the grill marks of its brand firmly seared in to the collective cerebral cortex.

The fragrance is for real, and retails for just $4 bucks. It's available on FireMeetsDesire.com, the BK site with a slideshow of soothing images of waterfalls and beaches and finally the naked King to get you in the mood for fast food.

The essence du publicity stunt is there, and so is the nod to Madison Avenue. Flame is only available online, and at the hipster beauty chain Ricky's NYC.

[via Brand Republic]

The coal lobby is hitting back to tout its message against an alliance (the Reality Coalition) against clean coal falsehoods by launching a viral campaign: Christmas caroling coal lumps.

The lobby's more traditional reaction to the Reality Coalition's campaign is in this press release.

The clean coal lobby, or American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity launched the cuddly lumps on its site AmericasPower.org with all the requisite social media "Share This" links so you can send them along to your friends.

After you dress the carolers in hats and scarves, they will sing six different Christmas classics including "Frosty the Coal Man," "Clean Coal Night," "Abundant, Affordable," "O' Technology," "Deck the Halls (with clean coal!)," and "Jingle Bells."

Here's holiday cheer that gets delivered to your friends:

I just discovered the Clean Coal Carolers. These jolly ol' souls give new meaning to getting a lump of coal in your stocking. In fact, coal is the stocking stuffer of choice this year. It's abundant, affordable and cleaner than ever. The Clean Coal Carolers are the holiday season's hottest singing sensations - and they're coming live to your computer. Happy clean coal caroling!

[via DeSmogBlog]