On Monday, I posted about receiving what I thought was the world’s most shameless press release: a company trying to sell tours to LA as an opportunity to pay tribute to Michael Jackson.
Right to respond
Just to prove that I can be even-handed, I offered them a right to respond to criticisms. I initially sent an e-mail, and then phoned as a national newspaper had indicated an interest in running a story on the subject. I was initially told that Door2Tour.com was “planning to ignore the e-mail” and didn’t want me to post their press release at Grumpytraveller.com.
Not exactly brilliant media relations, that, but I sent another e-mail spelling out that all I was trying to do was give a right of reply. And, if they didn’t wish to give a proper response, I would have to use the rather ham-fisted quotes I was given over the phone.
Response from Door2Tour.com
A couple of hours later, this came back from Door2Tour.com’s general manager:
“Thank you for raising your question and concern about today’s press release. We would like to take the opportunity to reassure that we did not intend to cause any offence.
“We are as sad as everyone else about the sudden passing of Michael Jackson. He is a global icon, and we have had many enquiries over the weekend and today about tours to the USA for people to pay tribute to him. We are just serving a demand from our customers who are genuinely interested in paying homage to “The King of Pop”.
“As you know, street sellers have been printing off t-shirts at Glastonbury, and visitors have been visiting Neverland and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in increased numbers as a result of the news.
“The Daily Mail has also run a story today outlining the phenomenon of tourism being boosted by the passing of a pop idol and does provoke an interesting debate.
“If you search on the web right now, you will see (*names online retailers and tourism sites*) all advertising Michael Jackson related products.
“We have also heard on the Radio News that Michael Jackson’s family would like as many people as possible to celebrate his life and death with memorials taking place in major cities across the world. Our tours will simply help people to get there. ”
Fair response?
To me, this is a reasonably fair, measured response. I’d call into question a couple of aspects, however. Firstly, the online retailers were already selling Michael Jackson products. Door2Tour.com most certainly wasn’t – it changed the description of an otherwise irrelevant product to capitalise on a major news story. In this respect, the company is in the questionable ethics bracket alongside the Glastonbury T-shirt salesmen.
Secondly, I’d query this statement: “We have had many enquiries over the weekend and today about tours to the USA for people to pay tribute to him.”
This seems rather unlikely to me. At a push, I can see the site having an increase in enquiries about tours to LA. But for fans to contact the site directly to ask about specific tours to the USA so that they can pay tribute to Michael Jackson? I find this hard to believe.
Again, I’ve asked Door2Tour.com whether this is true – that specific requests for Michael Jackson-themed tours led to them promoting Michael Jackson-themed tours . Over a day later, I’ve not had a response.
Tags: California, Grief tourism, Los Angeles, marketing, Michael Jackson, online travel, PR, Travel Industry
Totally ridiculous!