corporate anthems revisited

[chris raettig <chris@raettig.org>]

they're back... and this time its personnel


i reluctantly closed down the corporate anthems website late last year as the
amount of interest far exceeded my personal ability to keep hosting it. it had
become a victim of its own success and i couldnt justify spending time, energy
and money on extensive posting and expensive hosting for a frivolous side 
project. though hardly a day went by thereafter where i didnt receive some 
form of correspondence asking when it would be back, or requesting some of 
the audio files. 

the second wave of interest in corporate anthems came sometime after the site
closure and was centered around the rediculous kpmg hyperlinking fiasco. it
created a lot of secondary interest in the corpanthems site and renewed my
desire to put it back online again. i was slashdotted for the second time and
though woefully unsuccessful in my campaign to find out if the slashdot effect
can get you laid (i'm still awaiting the advent of the computer science
groupie), it did lead to some interesting dialogues about how the site
might be brought back from the dead. 

"give me a business benefit", said a guy from zdnet uk. so i did. this was
followed up with an online dialogue and a meeting in a pub near the zd offices.
this was back in either january or february. we had an interesting chat,
including digressions about mondo 2000 vs. wired, and geek tour. we also
worked out the nature of a deal whereby zdnet would host the corpanthems site.
throttling it at a generous 10mbps thereby testing their new traffic shaping
arrangements. they would be able to sell advertising space, and i would get
what i wanted. 

and so it came to pass.

wow i *knew* i'd get to write the above sentence in a legitimate context
*someday* :-))

just recently it came to fruition with the relaunch and, courtesy i can only
assume of some zdnet drum-banging, my third and hopefully final slashdotting
occured, and i was reluctantly thrust into another media circus.

within four days of each other i had received over twenty requests for
interviews from the media.

david rowan of 'the times' was admirably ahead of the pack. he had previously
written about the kpmg hyperlinking controversy back on december 10th, and now
picked up the story. a few days afterwards i was quoted on their back page
where they collate interesting quotes from the week. i nestled between a great
many testaments to the queen mother.

it really began when i awoke to discover a text message saying "your site is
being discussed on radio 5 live!". it was news to me. shortly afterwards i
learned that terry wogan had also been talking about me and corpanthems on his
radio 2 show, and the 'today' program on radio 4 had made up their own
corporate anthem. within just a few days i got interview requests from cnn
(uk), cnn (us), bbc news online, bbc world service, npr (united states
national public radio), cbc radio canada, time magazine, dagens industri (a
swedish economy paper. its like the uk financial times, i'm told), german
public radio, bbc asia, bbc radio scotland - and these are just the ones i can
remember. 

i was even asked to appear on richard and judy! 

i really am a reluctant media participant. and the whole corpanthems thing is
really just a bit of silliness. but on the other hand; i'm usually up for a
bit of silliness, and it was another fun ride. 

i turned down as many requests as i accepted. despite it being a fun ride, and
the people around me urging my participation while the media attention lasted,
it has come at one of the busiest times of my life so far. with more than
sufficient projects already vying for my limited freetime. 

i suck at tv/radio interviews, as anybody who saw my performance on 'the big
breakfast' last year can attest. for some reason i get really quite crippled
by such engagements. its my extreme nature in effect; an introversion as big
as profound as my extroversion. i hit an instinctual fight-or-flight mentality
as a direct reaction and become nervous and floundersome. 

is floundersome a word? it should be. 

i excel at afterisms; incredibly witty things you think of ten
minutes too late. 

cnn arrived at the warm company studio to interview me for a broadcast the
following day. after a brief chat they disappeared outside to setup their
camera. there are only so many ways you can shoot someone sat in front of a
computer and make it fresh, and the environment outside the studio is quite
funky and interesting so they had plenty of scope. just as we were about to
begin some loud thumping reggae music started up. we tried unsuccessfully to
locate the source of the noise. the unusual accoustics of the surrounding
buildings made it impossible to trace. the cameraman was insistent that they
would be unable to record clear audio despite the complicated microphone
arrangement i was wearing. 

at that point my colleague derek strolled up to see how we were getting along.
i explained the situation to him and he said; "oh, its coming from out the
front.". apparently its a weekly occurence for a group of reggae dudes to turn
up in their flash cars and play/make music outside. they are quite an imposing
looking crowd and i tried to imagine derek going along and cheekily asking if
they would mind keeping the noise down for a few minutes.

"come on", said derek, "lets go and ask if they'd mind keeping the noise down
for a few minutes."

and so the girl from cnn and derek wander over and do exactly that. derek
politely explains the situation to them. they immediately agree to stop their
noise until cnn have finished filming, and they desperately try
to get the cnn reporter to write down their names and phone numbers. "i'm
michael proffit! i'm a reggae supastar!", repeatedly insists one guy. whose
name, presumably, is michael proffit. 

derek denies this flatly when asked about it, but he does an amazing
impression of michael proffit. we have decided that we would like to hire mr.
proffit - a real bona fide reggae character - to be a corporate spokesperson
for warm company. i'm sure he wouldn't be offended to hear me say that he is
the complete opposite of the bland, well spoken, meticulous, predominantly
middle-aged white corporate spokespeople we are so used to seeing. we have
also decided that if we hired him as warm company spokesperson, we would very
much like not to brief him on anything. 

the happy ending, then, was that cnn got the film they needed. then i
disappeared inside to wonder how appalling my performance was while they
reviewed the tape before heading off. presumably to be herangued by michael
proffit and his associates on the way out. 


immediately after that i was giving a telephone interview to cbc public radio
in canada for their 'as it happens' show. they were a real pleasure to deal
with. i've made a point of thanking those companies and people know when
they've been supportive and positive to deal with, because not all of them
have. but a few have really challenged my preconceptions about dealing with
the media. after the interview i spoke on the line to the person i had been
liaising with over email and they assured me that my earlier warning to them
that i "suck at tv/radio gigs" was unfounded and that it had gone great. it
was admittedly less painful than i had anticipated, and certainly better than
what cnn got. but it still wasn't amazing, to my mind. 

it quite amused me that on the same day i got the initial request from cbc
(essentially canadas national radio station) i was also asked to speak to the
canada national post. their first emails came in less than ten minutes apart
and there seems to be a friendly and good natured rivalry
between these two organisations. when i mentioned to cbc that i had just been
speaking to the post they sent me an email asking what i'd said to cbc. they
told me that if the post ran with the story in the morning it might jeapordise
doing the radio interview. i had already promised the post that i would answer
a few questions and didn't want to go back on my word, and told as much to 
cbc. 

in response they sent back a very nice email; 

"i understand your position - as a member of the media, i appreciate your
honesty and integrity. i wouldn't expect you to break your promise with the
national post (they are good guys over there).  let's keep our appointment."

i explained this to the person from the post who replied; "cool. if
[the show you're being interviewed for] is 'as it happens' i commend you --
i listen to that show every night. its great."


both cbc and the national post were a pleasure to deal with. the woman from
the post and i exchanged many email messages and she sent me a few links and
some feedback on the press kit i was forced to hastily assemble just in order
to get anything done - to get away from answering the same basic questions
each time a new request came in. talking to great interesting people was
really the payoff for me, along with the enormous increase - indirectly - in
traffic that was caused by the media interviews. this has really been
demonstrated. a piece of media coverage in one part of the world quantifiably
increased votes for anthems on the site originating from companies
headquartered in that part of the world. i got zdnet to link both my personal
homepage and the warm company corporate site directly from the main page of
the corpanthems site which has really proven to be useful. 

talking to fast company last year was one of the most satifying experiences.
early last year i had become a convert to fast company and now read their
magazine voraciously. it was really nice to see that they genuinely practise
what they preach. 

time magazine was another good experience. i sent their reporter the web
address of my ad-hoc press kit. in return she emailed; "thanks, that's
helpful. i really have enjoyed your site, even though i think i
was a little behind the curve in picking up on it."  she then went on to give
some very good suggestions on the subject of creating press kits and advised a
few additions. she added; "or you may want to use the press site to
perpetuate elaborate hoaxes about yourself--which is what i'd be tempted to
do." 

i was left in several cases wondering whether the left hand knows what the
right hand is doing in a lot of media organisations. i had seperate requests
from five different bbc wings. cnn in the uk, and in the us contacted me
seperately. gen received a fresh request from cbc radio canada, and after
asking if they were aware that i'd already given an interview on 'as it
happens' they responded; 

"about 20 minutes after i sent you the e-mail, someone here mentioned
that as it happens may have already done the story."

"serves me right for not listening to my own radio station."


national public radio in the states (npr) were one of the last interviews i
gave, and i'd like to flag them up as another example of a group of people who
have gone out of their way to be accommodating, human and, well, nice. they
have a private circuit from a studio at the bbc's bush house facility on the
strand to their offices stateside so i suggested they liaise with the world
service from whom i'd also received an interview request. it would be much
more straightforward, i suggested, if they could co-operate so that i only had
to go along once and could record both interviews. sat in studio e-80 i was
this time armed with my laptop on which i'd made some preparatory notes. the
npr interviewer spoke to me from new york over my headphones and i found it
very useful to be able to make reference to my notes. it was a friendly and
good natured interview and for once i was pleased with how it went. it looks
like at the end of all this i finally got the hang of these things. 

i love bush house. in part because i'm a big fan of the world service which
has long had its home there. it is now also hosting much of the bbc's new
media wing and its always fun, though distinctly lacking in challenge, to sit
in the bar downstairs and work out which are the world service people, and
which are new media. its a comical culture clash. in part i also like bush
house just because its a wonderfully characterful and beautiful building. and you
can sit in reception and listen to world service on ornate wooden telephones. 
though security is noticably tighter than i recall. the security staff were
extremely unamused by my suggestion that they may want a urine sample from me.
i cant really blame them for that. 




the media frenzy has, predictably and thankfully, died down again now. i
suspect (hope, pray) that this will have been the final part of the corpanthems
story. but on the whole it has been a positive experience and an interesting
ride. albeit a slightly inconsequential one that shouldn't be taken too
seriously. 

if nothing else i have made some friends in the media. new friends are always
good. and these ones may be able to assist me when it comes to getting geek
tour off the ground. 


so now i can return to my natural habitat. sitting in front of my terminals,
happily squirreled away from the uncomfortable glare of the media spotlight
once again. 


at least until the next time i inadvertently piss off a large corporation.

or perhaps ill-advisedly imply that i think the scientologists are a bunch of
real nob-ends. 




background information about corporate anthems;

http://corporateanthems.raettig.org/press/
-- the hastily assembled press-kit. gives much of the backstory.

http://corporateanthems.raettig.org
-- the old uri for the corpanthems site. includes pictures courtesy of mr.
pollard from the hyperlinking controversy.

http://chris.raettig.org/email/jnl00036.html
-- the email that started the hyperlinking controversy

http://chris.raettig.org/email/jnl00040.html
-- my assessment of the hyperlinking controversy, including much backstory
about corporate anthems.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/specials/2002/it-anthems/
-- the sites new official address, as hosted by zdnet uk. 




related media coverage (incomplete);

   http://www.fastcompany.com/launch/launch_feature/corporate_songs.html

   http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,459630,00.html

   http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,615515,00.html

   http://corporateanthems.raettig.org/ft.txt

   http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48874,00.html

   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/27/0221218&mode=flat&tid=16.8

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/music/newsid_1908000/1908832.stm

   http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020408/573808.html

   http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/asithappens/entertainment/040402_anthems.html