The Death of Michael Jackson was of course a major shock to everyone, at least those of us who have never experienced such a major celebrity death in our adult lifetimes, "where were you when he died" is a question to be asked many times in the future.
What does this have to do with the art of promotion you may well be thinking? Well the 'event' caused an incredible amount of promotion to Jacksons back catalogue of work which was completely reappraised by a previously generally doubting public and even more so it has created a whole cottage industry for hangers on and celebrities to gain valuable free pr and thats not to mention the journalists and Editors who have managed to fill millions of column inches with more or less the same words repeated over.
It's the way in which the individuals are promoting themselves that interests me and its indeed a study into the human thirst for information no matter wether it is true or not, so many people flock to hear the words of a spoon bender just because he mentions the words Michael Jackson, or indeed they will buy books and magazines written by people who hardly knew him for long or hadn't seen him for years that it seems an easy way to promote yourself if indeed your moral standards can go so low (whilst you bank account gains $$$$$).
I even saw a seemingly delusional woman claiming to be his wife and lover, commanding the attention of a full horde of reporters on a ridiculous press conference in what was the most incredible moment of madness.
So as the rest of us try to work out ways of promoting ourselves and/or our business I suppose the lesson is to find whats hot and jump on the back of it no matter how tenuous a link we have to it, wether that be the days Twitter trends or the latest way of Optimizing for Google or creating a viral ad, maybe if we just say that we knew Michael Jackson that will be enough.
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