Sarah Palin gave her vaunted speech during the Republican Convention in front of 30 million plus television viewers.\u00c2\u00a0 Conventional wisdom, and ain’t that an interesting turn of the phrase, is that she killed.\u00c2\u00a0 So, does it matter what she does hereafter, especially if it doesn’t unfold in front of such a large audience?<\/p>\n
It’s almost impossible to garner a gargantuan audience.\u00c2\u00a0 But when you do, you must kill.\u00c2\u00a0 And note that whatever you do thereafter will be overshadowed by your effort in front of the masses.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Heroics during the regular season don’t mean much if you hit less than .100 during the World Series, if you come up to bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and you strike out.<\/p>\n
But an interesting corollary is the correction almost never gains the traction of the initial story.\u00c2\u00a0 If people believe that Obama is a Muslim, what are the odds that surfers are going to think Metallica are a bunch of anti-Internet goons?<\/p>\n
Music publicity is old school.\u00c2\u00a0 You build a relationship and control it.\u00c2\u00a0 But now you’ve got people posting stories online who you have no relationship with, who you cannot control.\u00c2\u00a0 This means you should project the consequences of your actions.\u00c2\u00a0 And if a crisis erupts, you must take action immediately, when people are still paying attention.<\/p>\n
Neil Diamond does a shitty show in the middle of the country and it makes the front page of Yahoo and the whole world knows.\u00c2\u00a0 Going on the offensive, almost immediately, Neil admits his voice was shot and offers refunds.\u00c2\u00a0 Case closed, because Neil jumped on the situation immediately, while it was still hot, with his truth.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m thinking Metallica should issue a press release immediately.\u00c2\u00a0 To give their side of the story.\u00c2\u00a0 Because upon further investigation, a lot of these issues are murkier.<\/p>\n
That writer in Sweden?\u00c2\u00a0 Not only did he download an altered album, he linked to it.\u00c2\u00a0 Stunningly, Universal Music, Metallica’s distributor in the territory, was too stupid to realize the writer had a bigger platform than they did.\u00c2\u00a0 By denying the interview, however right in principle, they fanned the flames of a non-story.\u00c2\u00a0 If I were Lars, who is quite loquacious, I’d call up that interviewer right now and give him a story, and debate the length of his songs.\u00c2\u00a0 In most cases, if you give the writer what he wants, which is access, he backs down, overwhelmed in this case that Lars made contact and was humble. We debate music all the time, why can’t stars do it, especially in this Net era where everybody’s available and reachable at all times.\u00c2\u00a0 Only by being proactive can Metallica kill this story.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got to make it their own!<\/p>\n
Then there’s the YouTube dust-up.<\/p>\n
If you watch the clip, Hetfield looks innocent.<\/p>\n
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