It's finally happening

An actual email I received last week, only slightly edited:

Ek, Brian to me

I saw your writeup on [name of celebrity] and his “musical” endeavors, and thought you might get a laugh out of this new website, created for the amusement of bloggers and [celebrity’s] fans.

It is:

Web site: www.[i’m not going to encourage them by telling you].com
Password: FRT6YH0039

The site, which is dedicated to [celebrity’s] current work on the [some product] campaign features:

All of his [product] spots, including his brand-new [particular product]spot
Behind the scenes interviews with [celebrity] – all exclusive and unscripted
An assortment of new cell phone ring tones
Wallpaper and screen savers featuring [celebrity]

I’m sure all of this will be new to you, since we’re unfortunately not airing the spots in Australia. Any and all of this stuff can be downloaded to your blog so you can share it with your friends and readers. No copyright concerns – feel free to use it if you like. Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Brian


This amuses me greatly, and will continue to do so for many weeks to come.

It is fabulous that anybody would think that the key to promoting their product would be to get a mention on “Life is a Highway”. And it gets about a billion times funnier when we consider that this product is only available in the USA.

I can’t quite say that this blog has never been read by anyone anywhere in North America, but that’s only because the lovely Emmak of Baltimore left a comment about six months ago. Also, I suspect that I probably get the occasional visit from a soon to be disappointed Tom Cochrane fan. But that would be about it.

How do they think this would work? Do these people really think that someone will ring them and say “I was going to go to your competitors, but then I noticed your produce was endorsed by some guy in Australia who is probably not called Craig, and I just had to buy it now”?

Much as I refuse to encourage Brian by actually naming his product here, I have to admire the guy. The sheer nerve required to offer me the opportunity to promote his product for free and then assure me that I won’t get sued for breach of copyright is indeed admirable. But what really impresses me is that this guy has somehow convinced a corporation to pay him actual money to google the name of a celebrity, read whichever blogs mention that particular person, and send a few emails.

I have no idea how Brian pulled this off, but I salute him.