Just pissed off another morning show. Don’t guess I’ll be hearing from them again.
They wanted jugglers in a crowd welcoming a weatherman back from his triumphant journey across the country. I said they could post the information on the JuggleNYC Volunteer Request Message Board so interested parties could contact them directly. They said they didn’t want 50 random jugglers. I promised them there were not 50 people in the city who wanted to wake up at 6am to work for no pay.
Of course they didn’t want to do the work to write the post, but guess what? I don’t want to do the work either. My job is booking performers, not coordinating volunteers to stand on a street corner juggling. I’m good at my job… and I get paid for it.
They argued that this was national exposure to 3 million viewers and would make folks look way better than juggling on a street corner somewhere.
A. How insulting! That’s their idea of juggling? It sounds like they just want attention-grabbing nut jobs who like to be seen on TV no matter what it takes.
B. How is juggling in a crowd going to make anyone look good? It’s counter-promotional: you get to look like the kind of nut job who wakes up to go stand in crowds and do quirky stuff to get attention outside a TV studio. Plus there was no mention of credit, so nobody would know who you were if they did like what you did.
I asked whether physicians come do surgery free for the exposure, and he said they do come on the show to talk about the risks of H1N1 free, and cooks come on to talk about their restaurants. How is either of those the same thing? I said that was promoting public health and a business, respectively. Since juggling for events is presumably the person’s actual job, this would be more like the cook making all the meals free at his actual restaurant.
I’m sick though and notoriously cranky. If you’re in NYC and want “national exposure” tomorrow morning, call me, and I’ll give you the guy’s number. Then I’ll give you a slap on the wrist for being an idiot.
[hr]
After I originally posted this on October 8, 2009, several people responded. You can read those comments here, or add your thoughts below.