I guess this is nothing new, but it sure seems like it has been a wacky week on the internet. At least a few people have really been letting their crazy streaks show.
For instance, have you seen this?
Sleepless in Austin <—- It’s a personal site created by a “gentleman” searching for his next girlfriend. His requirements for this special girl are pretty strict and his self description is… well… it’s detailed, at least. You really have to read it yourself to understand. The man in question has a unique sense of fashion:
He calls himself Romeo Rose, but rumor has it his name is actually Larry. Nice ruffles, Larry.
Oh yeah. And he will fork over $1,500 to whoever it is that hooks him up with this fantastical lady love. Bonus of $1,000 more if they actually get married. Yikes.
Quite a few people have voiced their opinions about this, like the Austin Culture Map and even more scathingly, the Huffington Post. And really, what else could they say? The guy is blatantly racist, sexist, classist, “weightist,” and probably a bunch of other nasty -ists. He’s too old to actually be a Millennial, but he displays every ounce of self-absorption and ego that my generation is constantly accused of having. His level of delusion (in one section of his site, he describes himself as “part CEO, part Rockstar,”) is staggering. I’m equal parts fascinated and repulsed. Yes, it’s like a car accident… you totally want to look away, but somehow you just can’t.
Also high on the horrifically interesting list this week is one Quin Woodward Pu, who keeps a “blog” of upcoming events in DC (original content is pretty sparse on the site, though) and appears to have a much higher opinion of herself than the rest of the internet at large. Quin has recently found herself at the center of a firestorm because, basically, she was a huge bitch to some guy for no real reason, and decided to tell the world. See it here —-> Little Black Blog. (Read some of the comments at the bottom if you must, but don’t bother with all of them… they’re pretty much the same thing said a dozen ways. And some are pretty vile.)
Ms. Pu’s reference to “two published books” in the post in question makes it more or less obligatory to look up her work on the world’s greatest marketplace, Amazon. Oh. My. Gawsh. Y’all. And we thought Romeo Rose was self absorbed.
First of all, both books are memoirs. Did I mention that she turned 26 a few days ago? What average American woman (and make no mistake, Quin is thoroughly average in spite of her many declarations to the contrary) has enough wisdom and experience to share that she needs a memoir at age 26, let alone TWO? And then there is this. Look at this cover art. Just look at it!
“It’s all about MEEEE!” she seems to squeal. Yeah… you guessed it. These are self-published.
This time, definitely do read the comments/reviews. They are so worth it. Though it’s pretty obvious that most of the recent reviewers haven’t actually read the books, they have more or less accurately assessed the quality of the content. The average rating is sitting at just over one star. If you need convincing that these people are not being unfair, feel free to have a glance of a sample of one book here: Type A+, Chapter Three.
So… almost needless to say, Quin is getting her fifteen minutes of infamy. She’s been on Buzzfeed and Gawker and the Daily Mail and Huffington Post and even the International Business Times. Make no mistake – she’s loving it. Traffic to her blog has never been higher and she may even have sold a few extra copies of her memoirs. She’s probably angling for a reality show, or at least a few appearances on talk shows, as we speak.
And this is where I start to get really uncomfortable with the whole spectrum of wannabe celebrities that fill our public consciousness. Romeo Rose says black people physically disgust him. A spoiled DC yuppie threatens to trash someone’s career over an imagined slight. Yes, we react to these people with disdain. We are quick to denounce them, to assert that we, emphatically and universally, disagree. The problem is that we do these things by saying to our friends, “Wow, have you seen this trainwreck? Can you believe they did that? Click this link to see the whole story.” So in spite of ourselves, we fuel their fire and encourage other desperate or dim folk to follow in their footsteps, because Hey, it made someone else famous once! We are dictating that there will be more of the same.
As someone who has studied media relations and strategic communication, I feel obligated to state that I really dislike the phenomenon. I don’t believe the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
There is, and this is it.
No one wins. These stories lack substance and have no sustained momentum. They paint the people in them as selfish, unintelligent, and lacking in discretion. And because they took place in an age where everything we do lives in The Cloud in perpetuity, they have a diarrhea-like ability to crop up again and again, possibly at the most inconvenient of times.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that not only will Sleepless in Austin and Ms. Pu lose our interest in a few days, but they will suffer from some degree of attention withdrawal and find themselves looking for ways to recreate their attention-whoring “magic.” And someday, when it seems that the hullabaloo has truly died down and they have begun to move on, one of these people will do something normal like apply for a job, and this nonsense will rear its ugly head. Who wants to employ a man who has gone on the record stating that African Americans look like monkeys to him, or a woman who wrote entire books about her college days of binge drinking and sexcapades?
There are multitudes of ways to put your name (or that of a client, if you’re a PR person) in front of an audience, and maybe even to shock a few people, without destroying your credibility and reputation in the process. Really, success depends less on reaching tons of people and more on reaching the right people. And that is something that can only be done by getting to know your product, your aims, and your audience really well. It’s something that takes forethought and hard work. But the results are lasting and that’s worth the investment.
When you combine good research with creativity, you’re reaching for a real spark – genuine interest and loyal brand supporters. That’s so much better than car-accident spectators! Unlike these hams reveling in their short-lived fame, it’s actually special.
Speak Friend and Enter 