Thursday, November 10, 2005
Shut up, stupid.
SHUT UP, STUPID.
What's it like being at a shit-hot press conference featuring Christina Aguilera, Westlife, Deborah Cox, Diana Ross and Lucia Micarelli? I'll tellya.
I'm going through the audio collected from the big Unite of the Stars press conference. I'm disgusted. Really, this was the hottest set of stars we've had in the country since the last 46664 and, as ever, the South African media blew it.
Typically, at one of these press conferences, each journo has one question. One shot. That's it. Unless you're one of the "favoured" journalist, in which case you might get two or three per celebrity. That in itself sucks, since the favoured journalists are more often than not sycophantic thicko's. And what do said thicko's choose to ask?
"What inspires you?" Or, in the case of Christina Aguilera, "how was the kiss with Madonna." That was 3 years ago! She's answered that question a billion times already!
It may seem like I'm being petty, but I desperately think that we should demand more of ourselves. I really don't mind if they're wasting their own time, but when it comes to a press conference, where we share the audio, stupid questions waste everybody's time.
Screw't, guys! Raise the bar. If you can find it out on the internet, if there's only one possible answer ("What do you think about South Africa so far?" Who's gonna say, "actually, it's fucking awful!"), if it's just your attempt to suck up to a star ("How do you stay looking so young?"), or if we've heard it before, shut the fuck up.
The celebrities went into auto-pilot, reading off their internal autocue (and who can blame them) and the South African media (for the most part) stood there dazed and breathless and wasting not only my time, but the time of all newspaper and magazine readers, radio listeners and TV viewers. One way to minimise the chance of suckiness would be to invite more of the alternative media. Let the mainstream use the audio. I'm sure the altpuppies won't mind. And everybody will have a better product.
That said, well done to all the organisers and the publicists for setting up this opportunity. It was slick and tight and classy. Cheers. Hopefully next time, the media won't blow it.
-- Lev David is an independent writer and media consultant. Visit him online at www.levdavid.com.
About Me
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- Name:Lev David
- Location:South Africa
Lev David is a writer and media consultant with a startlingly fresh approach to communicating your message. With words and ideas that are lean, precise and simply unstoppable, he has been smacking the mainstream media about the arse since he was 15. Good enough is never good enough. Ordinary gets a bullet in the head. The world is a mess of messages. Cut through.