Ad Age's Scott Donaton writes a really thought provoking commentary piece about the ongoing scandal regarding James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. In the piece, he coarsely strokes the elephant in the room - Oprah (I mean that figuratively of course) - with respect to her self-interest and stake in the controversy:
Most of the coverage ignored the fact that Oprah has something at stake, as much actually as Frey and the bookâs publisher: the credibility on which her brand is based. Few have dared to suggest her continued endorsement may have been driven by commercial considerations, not just altruistic motives.
He also covers off on (human) brand implications:
Theyâre all brands, and a brand is a promise to the consumer. This consumer feels that promise was betrayed -- and worse, that when the betrayal was revealed no one held themselves responsible or offered so much as an apology.
My quick take is three-fold:
1) At the time of this posting, AMLP was number 1 (that's pronounced $O$N$E$) on Amazon's sales rank. Does it make it right, absolutely not.
2) A new marketing developing sub-story: Check out (click on the thumbnail or just visit the site) the explosion of reviews coming into Amazon. I count 19 from just today (and counting); most are extremely negative and most have at least 20-25 responses (helpful or not) which are useful proxies of consensus, and yet...
3) See 1)
On a completely unrelated note, I have it on good authority that most of Joseph Jaffe's book, "Life after the 30-second spot" was completely fabricated. Oh wait, it's an opinion piece...so it doesn't really qualify as fabricated, does it? STUPID STUPID STUPID. There goes the early retirement...
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