Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Oasis turn interesting sales stunt into "documentary"

The idea of getting buskers to learn songs from Dig Out Your Soul was a neat piece of marketing. A clever, one-shot idea that couldn't disguise the clunking noise coming from the record itself, but was a great way of at least warning people that there was a new Oasis record on the loose.

Now, though, the whole thing has been turned into a documentary. Because what could be more fascinating than watching a marketing campaign in full swing?

And not just any old documentary. The press release is keen to stress this is history:

It will mark the first HD debut of a documentary in the history of MySpace Music.

Wow. You'll remember where you were when you saw the first HD debut of a documentary on MySpace music, that's for sure.

But this isn't marketing. Oh no. It's art. You can tell:
The Malloys followed Oasis and the street musicians through the process and created the 18 minute black and white documentary.

See? Black and white. That's actual art.

There's one further interesting little snippet in the press release:
The street musicians rehearsed and then performed the previously unheard new songs at locations throughout the City including MTA approved subway station platforms at Grand Central, Times Square, Penn Station and Astor Place, subtly premiering the album before it came out.

It's understandable that the marketing team got permission from the MTA before sending the buskers out. But why would you want to stress that approval in the blurb? "We got all our licences and the health and safety signed off for this big rock promotion", is it?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It will mark the first HD debut of a documentary in the history of MySpace Music. The Malloys followed Oasis and the street musicians through the process and created the 18 minute black and white documentary."

Feel free to point out my complete techno-divviness here - I'm yet to embrace the world of widescreen LCD TVs (and I can't work out how to change the settings on my normal-sized TV, so most programmes consist of two noses poking in from the sides of the screen) - But does 'HD' mean the documentary is in High Definition? And 'black and white' means it's in, well, black and white?

Isn't that like recording the album in Dolby surround-sound and then releasing it on flexi-disc?

acb said...

If black and white was good enough for the Beatles, it's good enough for Oasis!

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