In our PR class we are discussing the concept of a "pseudo-event", for those of you who are not familiar with what that is, here is a brief description:
The terms “pseudo-event” and “media event” refer to the phenomenon that in modern societies many events are created with the sole aim of getting media coverage, or rather that events are staged in a way that lends itself to media coverage. Boorstin (1961) created the term “pseudo-event”.
With that in mind I was sent to research online and find a wicked awesome example of a pseudo event. But I quickly realized that I took part in an annual pseudo event for three years during my university career.
As a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority I participated in our annual "Teeter-Totter-a-Thon". For three days straight my sorority and our partner fraternity rode an oversized teeter totter on an outdoor platform in our university campus.
The event took place at the beginning of each school year and was used to garner attention from media and students alike. The idea was that if we hyped up our sorority, got our name out there and reached the chosen audience than we would receive more "rushes" during rush period. The process of "rush" occurred immediately following our three days on the teeter, and by that time we would already have potential candidates lined up.
During our "rush parties" the most common reason for girls choosing to get to know our sorority was that they saw us riding the teeter totter and it looked like we were having fun! So needless to say our pseudo event was very successful in getting us the attention we needed to "recruit the masses" so to speak!
Christa :) (not a snotty sorority girl!)
Just goes to show you - when done well, publicity stunts work!
ReplyDelete