Los Angeles, 11-13-09; 11:05PT With the parents pleading
guilty today in Fort Collins, CO the Balloon Boy saga seems to be drawing to a close. All that's left now is doing the time.
That and repairing the damage to the Heene family. Some of the comments I've read in various media outlets came down pretty
hard on the parents, the father especially, for not making a formal apology to the American people. Link to 11-13-09 complete text blog
Los Angeles, 10-23-09 12:20 PDT
Well, so much for the soft landing. The Balloon Boy story crashed hard and broke in a
million pieces. The repercussions for the Heene family have taken the fun out of it. This "balloon chase" of a breaking
news story about a young boy in great danger, adrift in a balloon, captivated the nation last week, and it's still on our
minds. As if following a drumbeat, the event went from "Disaster in the Making" to "Hoax" to "Saga"
to "Publicity Stunt." We were brought back down to earth as it morphed from media event to its latest form-- Family
Tragedy. Manipulation of the media, criminal behavior, possible physical and psychological abuse and, at the least, parental
exploitation of minors are the final impressions the general public will take away from this multi-layered story. It's already
worked it's way into the popular culture in many formsI'm In A Box - music video, balloon boy gets his own iphone app, not as a touching human interest story, but as another media hoax perpetrated by a crass fame-seeker, done this time
at the expense of his young children. Link to 10-23-09 text Blog
Los Angeles, 10-16-09 1:20 PDT
One of my favorite pet peeves about Electronic Publicity is that we get
so carried away with our wonderful words when even a simple image can do the job (quite nicely, thank you). Hence the runaway
success of (cost-effective) virals, etc. in social media.
Story: Boy, oh, boy. Where to begin with this wonderful
story offered up to us at the end of the week? It makes that DOW 10,000 story seem like a yawn. Since this thrilling "balloon
chase" media event had a soft landing we can all have a little fun with it, but there are some timely lessons to be learned
here. Beware of the modern, reborn Joan Q. Public. She's web-savvy and can spot a fake faster than Antiques Roadshow.
I
started with the best intention of laying down some pithy analysis on this one with regard to, oh, say, the growing transparency
of marketing and PR pursuits in the use of electronic media, the ethics of responsible parenting... But why bother? Just look
at the wealth of wisdom already flowing from that wellspring we call the web. So, here you have Blog Light with assorted video.
The evidence has been digitized for your rapid digestion.
To help get your story off the ground and keep it
up, look, listen and learn:
1. Don't have too much pre-existing b-roll available.
It may cloud the viewer's perception of your "live" event.
Raw home Video of balloon launch fuels Questions
UPDATED: 4:42 pm MDT October 16, 2009
Click Here
2. Don't have too much pre-existing footage available
suggesting prior exploitation of your talent or the media.
