US socialite Paris Hilton is currently visiting South Africa with her boyfriend, Benji Madden. She has been on the local news, and some photographs have already surfaced of Paris playing with school children from the Jakaranda Kinderhuis school in Pretoria. Her boyfriend Benji Madden and his band, Good Charlotte, are to perform at My Coke Fest over the Easter weekend.
As I noticed Paris on SABC television news, I wondered if there’s anyone in the world right now who is better at self-promotion than Paris Hilton? I don’t think so because she just keeps popping up. It’s almost like you cannot get away from her brazen image, not even here at the bottom tip of Africa 😉
Anyway, wherever Paris goes, the cameras follow, and it’s been said that she is paid over US$200,000 to party for 15 minutes at nightclubs. This one report says she’s been paid over US$1 million by just one club in Las Vegas. As the Easter Weekend approached, I began receiving those horribly irritating SMS messages inviting me to this or that club that’ll be open all weekend. It’s always the same, and there’s very rarely anything worth talking about happening at these nightclubs. So it got me thinking, if I were one of the owners, I would go crazy promoting Paris Hilton making a guest appearance at my club. And given her track record for not showing up, there would be little recourse from people who came to see this dumb (or maybe not so dumb) blonde party because she is just flaky like that. More to the point you do not have to lie because it all depends on how good your copywriter is, and you never have to lie about anything.
For example, I would have used a text message like this: “Wanna party with Paris Hilton? Join us for the event of the year @ club XYZ. Dress like a celeb!” This could be construed as false advertising or you can play some music videos or other material featuring Paris Hilton. What I mean is that nobody in any of these nightclubs actually gets to meet Paris, and therefore,e the closest most people will get is to dance along with the music from her debut album, Paris. How far-fetched is this? Whatever backlash you may get would be worth the experiment in media hype or influence.
Anyway, what’s your opinion of Paris Hilton as a self-promoter? What lessons can be learned from her?
