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How To Make A Profit From Michael Jackson’s Death
I do not think there was anyone who wasn’t surprised by the sudden death of Michael Jackson at the age of 50. It hit the world news for weeks as fans grieved and a world mourned for the loss of a great musician and performer. Regardless of whether the issues in his personal life affected your judgement of his character towards the end of his life, there are few who cannot deny that the very essence of Michael Jackson was for the betterment of mankind, not for the worse.
However, Michael Jackson isn’t the issue here. Nor has it ever been. It could be anyone at any time and the fact still remains – there is always profit to be made from the death of a celebrity. As I am writing this, news of Brittany Murphy’s has just surfaced and I cringe to think that the same cycle will just repeat itself.
You see, whilst we are all mourning, discussing the news with colleagues and waiting for toxicology reports, there are people, businesses and corporations wondering, concocting and planning how they can make a bit of cash out of this.
On Amazon.com, after researching the publication dates of all tribute and biography books I found over 65 publications since his death on 25th July 2009. Think about how long it takes to write a biography and the research that has to go into it. Then consider that one book “Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, 1958-2009” by J. Randall Taraborrelli was published on the 5th of August, 11 days after Michael Jackson’s death. I wish to add that the book is 768 pages long. Now, it is evident that Taraborrelli had been writing this biography long before Jackson’s death, yet the fact still remains that Taraborrelli’s book was out even before we found out how or why Jackson really died.
Now, Taraborrelli isn’t alone. There were so many books launched unbelievably quickly after the news broke that it seemed as if publishers knew something we didn’t. This isn’t true of course, but it is easy to see where the money lies. One book is actually called “Michael Jackson: The Book the Media Doesn’t Want You To Read”. I noticed however it’s only 104 pages long and blatantly overlooks the fact that the media will print absolutely anything they can if it sells newspapers so whatever is in that book is either already in the papers or isn’t really that interesting. I’m pretty sure the media couldn’t give a toss about that book.
As a professional biographer, all you need to be is one step ahead. Who is most likely to die in the next two/three years? Ronnie Biggs? Norman Wisdom? Get researching, write their past, follow their current life, then fill in the last few blank pages when they die. Suddenly, you can see why it’s not that hard.
But it’s not just books. It sells papers, magazines and makes us watch news channels and TV specials. It consumes our lives involuntarily, so that when you are having that conversation with your colleagues at work about Jackson’s death, you are surprised at yourself by how much you actually know about it. But again, you will never have a choice.
In comparison to some money-grabbing schemes, biographies and picture books are quite low-key. Actual effort has gone into those and whilst they strive to do nothing but try to make money off other people’s (private) lives, they are informative to those who want to buy them. If I don’t want to know about Michael Jackson’s life, I am quite content with saving the extortionate £15.99 for a glossy book with a few pictures that are of no use to anyone. Even after one flick through, you will put that book on the shelf and never open it again. That £15.99 could have gone on something important like a samba lesson at your local village hall. At least you actually learn something worthwhile.
No, the news that the Jackson estate has reportedly made over $100 million since the singer’s death is the one that astounds many. One comes to realise that nothing stopped once Jackson died. Usually, the family of a victim like this will say something like Murphy’s family did: “We ask you to respect our privacy at this time”. Then, they mourn and they try to move on. Her husband will go back to being a screenwriter and she will be a fond and appreciated memory to him. You will not see them trying to squeeze all the money they can by making dolls, memorabilia and other trinkets that make the poor public feel like the only way to pay tribute to Michael Jackson is to buy something. I have a better idea. Put on your favourite Michael Jackson song, turn up the volume and dance around the house singing along with the words. That can be your own tribute – don’t let anyone tell you how to pay your respects.
It’s just sad how transparent it all is. After his death on the eve of his big comeback tour, the organising body were royally screwed. There were a lot of people who stood to make a lot of money from that tour. And there were a lot of people who were pissed off when the tour didn’t go ahead. Think about when you go to a gig – there are drink sellers, food sellers, merchandise sellers, security, stewards and hundreds more that relied on this series of gigs to make some serious cash. Suddenly, we have the worst ever money-making scheme ever concocted. Check this out from the Telegraph:
“The company is facing an estimated £300 million bill following Jackson’s unexpected death on the eve of the tour, and the ticket offer is being seen by many fans as an attempt to claw back some of the cash.
Around £60 million worth of tickets were sold for the 50-date comeback tour at London’s O2 Arena, with 750,000 people paying between £50 and £75 for a seat. Each fan received a sales voucher or receipt, and tickets were due to be sent out by post.
AEG hopes that hundreds of thousands of fans will take up the offer of a “commemorative” ticket, which was “inspired and designed by Michael Jackson” and is set to become a collector’s items. Alternatively, full refunds will be given.
Randy Phillips, AEG’s chief executive, said: “The world lost a kind soul who just happened to be the greatest entertainer the world has ever known. Since he loved his fans in life, it is incumbent upon us to treat them with the same reverence and respect after his death.””
Now, most will remember this and laugh at the idea that AEG believe that the public will pay £50 – £75 for a piece of paper. Not only that, but Joe Cohen, chief exec. for seatwave.com said that this is a win-win situation for the fans and AEG. No it isn’t. The cost of a single paper ticket is under 10p. It’s a win for AEG and a loss for the fans and here’s the reason: the more fans that choose to the ticket option are flooding the market with too many of them to actually sell on for profit. If there are only 4 tickets, they are rare and worth a lot. If there are (as rumoured) over 100,000 people out of 750,000 who chose the ticket option, they are going to be worthless.I think AEG win.
Yet the fact that the Michael Jackson Tribute show has been cancelled twice now shows that Jermaine Jackson really is not on the ball. Apparently it is now a useless endeavour and has been scrapped all together. Nice. It’s a tribute show to your late brother not the motor starter string on a lawnmower. Give it another go Jermaine- it’s only your dead brother an’ all.
Yet, I bet ol’ Jermaine and his brothers are really flying now. What with ‘This Is It’ a cleverly edited reel of footage saved from the rehearsals and interviews for the live shows due to take place in London. Not only is The Michael Jackson Company one of the four production teams, but also guess who else…AEG. This film made over $250,000 in box office sales, not to mention the album being bought out giving us again almost the same songs that you could find on any Michael Jackson album if you had a couple already.
I will leave you with this lovely quote from AEG CEO Randy Phillips from the CNBC website:
“”If we all do our jobs right, we could probably raise hundreds of millions of dollars just on the stuff we have worldwide and then the estate could eradicate its debt.”
AEG Live also stands to profit from the material.
Jackson’s album sales have exploded since his death, with three of his albums in the top three spots and 2.3 million tracks downloaded in the United States, Nielsen SoundScan said. Worldwide digital downloads for the week hit 3.3 million.
“We have enough audio to make two live albums, and he’s never done a live album,” Phillips said. “This is really the last great work of a 21st century genius.” The production budget for the 50 London shows, which were set to begin July 13, swelled to more than $25 million, he said.”
Randy 'Just doing my job' Phillips
AEG stand to profit from the material?
Write a book, sell memorabilia, exploit simple fans and stand to make a profit. I’m going to go start writing Randy Phillips’s biography for when he dies. Hopefully I can make some cash from his demise.
Signs and Advertising
It is an observation of mine, and certainly not an original one, that advertising appears to be encroaching on every aspect of our current life. It appears that it has hit a point of such fervour that from the time we wake up, serenaded by adverts on our radio alarm clock, our eyes and ears continually feast on a commercial market stall whereby every trader wants your business.
However, it took a small and insignificant notice in an off-licence window to make me consider this clamouring world of marketing and its effect on our daily routine and how ‘they’ get you hook, line and sinker- because they do.
The advert in question was the most ineffective and flawed piece of advertising I had ever seen, which made me completely stop in my tracks and peer quizzically at, number one, the product on offer, and number two, the gall this seller had to think this would work.
The ad was a rectangular piece of card about 15 x 8cm, and on it, scrawled in illiterate childish handwriting, was:
“Viagra (underlined) Original 100%
Made by (word scribbled out and then rewritten) Pfizer
Phone me on 079********
Leonard”
See the attached photograph.
Now obviously, there are a few key errors in marketing this sale item that would make any advertiser’s face peel inside out. Even if you’re not in advertising, you may still appreciate that Leonard may not have been at the top of the business world, but: does that make it a bad advert?
Consider this: Leonard’s advert actually made me stop and look closer. It wasn’t because of the wording or content, but the first thing that any consumer sees is a collective picture of the advert and that entices us to read more. Leonard: Creepy old man or Advertising Genius? It may have been his carefree attitude to the advert, a ‘devil-may-care’ debonair dandy demure if you will, but lets not escape the fact that this man is trying to sell Viagra in a newsagents shop window.
Forget the piano lessons, rooms to let, and the far too obvious ‘friendly massages’, my eyes were drawn to his brilliant (and I’m sure tactical) use of underlining the word ‘Viagra’. This was then swiftly followed by a reassuring (maybe even medical) statement ‘Original 100%’. Can you get 95%?
So, we have drawn the consumer in with underlining and then medical reassurance. What next? Leonard gives us a maker and his contact details. What more do you need? I would, however, question why Leonard chose to scribble out the miss-spelt ‘Pfizer’ and write it again, rather than going to his roller-top desk and getting a new piece of card. And anyway, would you know the incorrect spelling of ‘Pfizer’ if you had never heard or seen the word before? I doubt it.
Credit to the man, he has used a fantastic trick at the end. Advertisers these days are desperately trying to make their advertisers more personable and sincere to the consumer. We like to feel like it is only use who are being advertised to. This usually entails simply putting the word ‘mate’ at the end of whatever spiel they have created to make it sound like it’s your best friend selling it to you.
However, unlike many newsagent windows’ adverts, which conclude with sign-offs like ‘call Dave on 07*********’ or simply ‘Tel: 07*********’, Leonard has followed the personal practice and signed his advert like he’s finishing a long letter to Aunt Maggie in Chipping Norton. I don’t doubt that Leonard is still yet to find a purchaser for his product. However, this does not neglect the fact that selling Viagra via an advertisement in a shop window is going to be just as hard as if he said he made the stuff in his own bathtub.
However, this spawned an investigation into signs and adverts that do make me wonder what the marketing department were thinking when they put these out there. All of the collected photographs are my own.
1. This was taken at Charing Cross rail station. It is an advert for the rail station itself, yet it is in the actual rail station. This seems a bit counter productive. If I am already there, surely the mission is already accomplished? Do the marketers want me to want to be there more? It will make your head hurt thinking about it. It’s like reading a newspaper only to find there is a huge double spread advert inside, encouraging you to read the very same newspaper.
However, what I also want to question, is what is the woman on the right holding? The whole photograph looks like front cover to a classy pornography film. This is further accentuated by the line ‘Your ooh perfect match station’. I cannot fathom what this advert was trying to achieve or what it is trying to display.
2. Marks and Spencers are one of those stores that my Grandmother shops at. Their food is good but expensive and their clothes are plain and sturdy. You know what your getting with M&S. Every man in Britain owns of has owned underwear from Marks and Spencer.
So, imagine my consternation upon seeing this advertising leaflet being given out to the public. Are advertisers so clueless that not one of them flagged up the error that ‘Pocket Rocket’ is a term often used for a male state of arousal? There must be a young intern in the marketing department who could have stuck his head around the boardroom door and gone, ‘Uh, guys…’.
3. This one is a particular favourite of mine. An advert for Roehampton University. Now, for a university advert, having three cleverly diverse individuals standing together laughing is the optimum shot. The photograph is flawless. It took me a while, though, to realise why this advert wasn’t quite right. Having the line ‘We can open doors’ next to the photograph that advertises a place of education suddenly looks like they literally couldn’t open doors before. As if door handles, door knobs etc were just beyond their grasp. Take another look and you will understand what I’m talking about.
It’s as if there was a course module in ‘Door Opening’ and all three just passed. The line below doesn’t help in the slightest.
‘For an education that gives you the skills to succeed in your chosen career…’
Door opening is one of those skills offered by Roehampton University.
4. Here is one of those adverts that I am clearly missing the point of but still, as a consumer, it is important to be able to understand the advert at least. I’m talking about the British Airways campaign.
The scene is of a generic city street, with a hotdog/burger salesman behind his grill, frying up food for his customers. Now, the line is:
‘You can’t smell a city from a coach.’
This just makes we wonder if the person who came up with the line knew he was working for an Airline company. You can’t smell a city from a coach? As opposed to what? An aeroplane? I’m sure you can smell the city less at 30,000 feet in the air, in a sealed metal capsule, flying at over 500 miles per hour. I could be wrong though.
5. An advert for the supermarket Sainsbury’s this time. This is actually a sign in the store. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with it, especially if you look at the photograph. However, I will type it here anyway:
‘We are amending ours prices following the recent budget changes.’
I guess the people at Sainsbury’s took even longer to figure it out. Say it out loud if you still don’t get it.
6. I think this one is so obscure, it’s a wonder it ever got made. Now, please believe me, this has no reflection on Ho Chi Minh, he was an impressive leader, there is no doubt. However, I must ask why the plaque was put up at all when you actually read it.
‘Ho Chi Minh (1890 – 1969) Founder of modern Vietnam. Worked at the Carlton Hotel in 1913, which stood on this site’
Now, if we had to put up a plaque everywhere that a famous dignitary once worked, they would be everywhere. The fact the Minh worked there in 1913 is pretty obscure, but the fact that the Carlton Hotel is not even there anymore makes it even worse. It’s like saying Minh once bent down a petted a dog outside the New Player Theatre which hadn’t even been built at that time. Make that man a plaque.
7. The one on the transport system, I assume is fake and is a prank, but is a fantastic one nonetheless. The sticker reads:
‘Peak Hours may necessitate that you let other people sit on your lap.’
I really hope that it’s real, but somehow, you know that it would never work in your favour. You would get a thirty stone sewage worker on a packed train point to your crotch and say ‘is that seat taken?’
8. This one is for fun. ‘Ramped Access to Tigers’ sounds like a great band name, but even worse, it faintly sounds like there is a disabled ramp that runs straight into the tiger enclosure. That would be a gladiator battle like you wouldn’t believe.
There will be more of this, believe me. The world will not run out of stupid adverts and signs. But for now, I’m going to watch a paraplegic and Bengal tiger have it out.