Sorry few posts. Hectic week. Going holiday Friday. Lots to do…
I’ve started to use Radio 4 as my alarm clock. I didn’t think it would work. But people talking, gently, as they do on R4, is quite a nice way to wake up. You get kind of drawn out of sleep and into a conversation.
As I was becoming concious yesterday morning I caught this snippet. From an interview with the director of the new Omen horror film. (Due to my 1/2 waking state I’m paraphrasing):
Interviewer: Isn’t releasing your film on 6/6/6 just a cynical marketing gimmick?
Interviewee: Absolutely. Is there any other kind of marketing gimmick? I’ve never heard of a genuine marketing gimmick.
I’m pretty sure he’s wrong. There must be some genuine marketing gimmicks. In fact aren’t all marketing stunts just gimmicks? And some of those are very genuine, aren’t they? Anyone got any great examples of ‘genuine marketing gimmicks’?
(The definition of a gimmick I’m using is: “A trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business”, probably thinking more about the tricky side of things).
Genuine and Cynical don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Why can’t there be genuinely cynical gimmicks? I would say most are… from a certain point of view.
Yup there’s plenty of genuinely cynical stuff out there all right ;-)