A Publicity Stunt Or Viral Ad -- Or Just A Band Connecting With Fans?

About a week ago, a band named Atomic Tom apparently had all of its instruments stolen, but as the story goes, they still had their iPhones and the will to continue. So they filmed themselves performing one of their songs on a NYC subway -- playing their iPhones, instead of their usual instruments. The band got some attention for this stunt, and along with it, questions like: "Did they really have their instruments stolen? Was this performance really impromptu? Did Apple pay them to advertise for the iPhone?" You can watch the video for yourself here: The video certainly seems polished enough to warrant questions about how much planning must have gone into making it. But does it really matter? Isn't the best advertising the kind of advertising that you don't care if it's advertising? Even if this performance is a well-orchestrated (no pun intended) publicity stunt, the band is still offering up this entertainment for free to attract new listeners (and presumably to help pay for new instruments, someday in the future). That's just a smart business move.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101018/02341211464/a-publicity-stunt-or-viral-ad-or-just-a-band-connecting-with-fans.shtml

NETWORK APPLIANCE NETGEAR NCR NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR