I've heard two different news stories now, news stories about how Michael Jackson's death has prompted the public to empty Amazon's warehouse of anything related to the King of Pop. And news stories about how iTunes has recorded a huge rush of downloads.
I would prefer to think that some public relations person wasn't sitting around and then BAM! "Hey, I've got an idea..." But if it wasn't the public relations person, then it was the journalist who was noodling around and the said, "Hey! I've got an idea..." and then called the public relations person at Amazon or iTunes. And the public relations person spilled. I thank my luck stars that's I've stayed mostly clear of that.
I write "mostly clear" because, in the course of a career in corporate propaganda, stuff happens. For example, I used to take the very early train to work back in 1999 and I rode a shuttle bus from the train station to the 3Com campus. As the shuttle bus made the corner, there are four television news vans, fully lite, microwave masts fully extended and I could tell that they were already doing stand ups on the sidewalk in front of one of the Palm buildings. All the heads in the bus turned to me - I knew everybody and everybody knew me and what I did. I asked the the bus driver to drop me off and he obliged me.
So, it's about 6:00a in November and the first thing I do is introduce myself to the the assemblage and find out what the heck was going on. So they proceed to tell me that an Egyptian airliner had gone down and one of the passengers was an employee @ Palm. They said they wanted to interview people arriving at work and ask them about the guy, Kurt Schwenk. --Well, that struck me as very inappropriate so I decided to put them in a cage. I invited them into the Palm cafeteria for fresh coffee and donuts. Once we got into a keycarded area of the campus, in a room, that would give me a chance to keep them off the street asking random people about some dead guy who they probably didn't even know.
In 1999, I had Special Powers @ 3Com and a card key that let me in to most everywhere, including the Palm cafeteria. @ 6:00a the cafeteria was just getting warmed up for the breakfast crowd and the coffee was brewing and the donuts had been delivered. So far, the plan was working out. I got everybody to sit at one big table and told them that I was going to find out what was going on so I could help them out.
At the time, Palm was being led by a 3Com executive who was a placeholder until the Real Guy could be recruited. He was famous for showing up to work early, and, sure enough, he was at his desk when I dialed up his cellphone. I gave him a quick sketch of the situation and recommended that he come down, give the four assembled news teams a statement so that we could get them the hell off campus. And I told him to leave his Palm at his desk because we wouldn't want to see the CEO of Palm doing a product demo in the context of the death of an employee. He said that made sense, grabbed his jacket and came downstairs with me.
I acted as emcee and introduced the executive to the assembled journalists and opened the floor for questions. The executive held up pretty well but I could tell he had no idea who Kurt Schwenk was. And so forth until one of the reporters asked the CEO if he had a Palm on him that they could take a picture of. The CEO looked and me and kind of gulped and then produced the latest, greatest Palm device with wireless access which inevitably lead, of course, to a product demo.
While all this was going on, I had alerted 3Com security that I needed a couple of guys next to me right now. I started to wind down the conversation and then told everyone that this was done and it was time to move on. One of the reporters, and I remember this so very clearly, asked me if I could give her a picture of Schwenk. I was taken back a bit and told her that I didn't have a picture of him. Then, she asked me to go up to his desk and see if there were any pictures of his family. By now I was in position and told her that I wasn't going to do it, and I let the security guys know that we were done here and that they should help the four news crews back to their vans and made sure everyone had my business card.
One hour later, I get a call from that same reporter who had asked about the pictures and she asks me, "Can you send me a picture of him, the one you have on for his badge." I told her that I wouldn't do it and I recall saying it in a rather sternly inflected voice. She replied, "Ok, then I'll just go to the DMV and get it from them." I wished her luck.
I'm no saint. I decided that I wasn't going to be a journalist as I was covering my third student suicide listen to the telephone ring at the home of his parents so I could ask them how they felt about it. I knew then and there that my momma didn't raise me for this type of work and looking out into the future, I knew there were going to be a lot more calls like this in my future. --No. That was it for me. And so I ended up in book publishing and one thing led to another. High tech PR is, generally, a very competitive profession but I don't have to deal with pulling people's lives open and shine a bright light on what I find.
On 9/11, in addition to everything else, a collegue and I organized a truck full of Wi-Fi gear to be delivered to the Red Cross in Manhattan and told the twenty some odd guys we had based in Manhattan to help install it. We did it because it was the right thing to do. And we did get one piece of coverage on that. But that wasn't why we did it. My collegue, Karin Bakis, and I lost a dear friend that day and we did it because we could and it was the right thing to do.
I'm just saying, some PR people at Amazon and iTunes have to figure out what part they're going to play in the story -- or not. I don't know if anyone took that call at Amazon or iTunes or if the reporters got the information off the websites. My gut tells me that someone in PR got a call -- and took the call. I don't have to do that.
