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16.12.06

Matrimonial mashups in Brum

With a nod to Stuart Bruce I was interested to come across the above. What a delicious revenge to take against an errant husband and what a brilliant way to harness the use of "old media".
Apparently the billboard in the centre of Birmingham cost about £2,500 to expose Jane Doe's philandering husband's affair with her best friend. If you're struggling to read it - this is the text in full:

To my 'dear husband Mark' and 'my best friend Shelley',
You are the most despicable, deceitful people I have ever met. I know what you did and I'm disgusted.
I've changed the locks Mark, burnt your clothes and emptied OUR joint account - to pay for this poster.
You deserve each other.

All well and good but when you go online to Jane's MySpace site she has 1983 "friends" offering advice and support. At present I can't find any reference to her Ex having a similar site. And as Stuart points out Jane has been a regular correspondent about her suspicions with local Birmingham radio station BRMB's Elliott and Caroline - who also just happen to be the first friends that appear on her MySpace blog.
Writing this now this looks like a great story - although I've seen no mainstream coverage as yet - but Stuart is suspicious as BRMB's involvement might mean that this is not all that it seems. The station is accomplished at creating controversial publicity for itself, such as its 'Two strangers and a wedding' stunts. Whatever the truth of the matter it's another good example of how old media is not dead and how new media adds another dimension to the marketing mix.

If this is the case we should be told - but then again there is nothing new under the sun as a similar stunt was pulled off in Manhattan earlier this year (see picture below). I'm not sure how I would react if my wife had an affair but I suspect my fiery Celtic temper would not be as polished as Jane's.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

brilliant

Anonymous said...

brilliant - it's not always the medium but the message that counts

Anonymous said...

Great story thanks for the link to Jane's site. That is one seriously angry lady. Whether its a publicity stunt or not that kind of media is exactly what the public like to read about.