Monday, August 06, 2012

Vinyl comeback faker


"... His finest hour came thanks to the New York Times. In April, the paper ran a piece on vinyl record collectors and Holiday was quoted declaring them to have "a fuller sound".

PR strategist Ryan Holiday decided, by way of an experiment, to get himself quoted as an expert source by the writers of articles and blogs on as many different subjects as possible. The big catch: he wasn't an expert in any of the subjects in question, and some of the time, he wouldn't even speak to the writers.

Holiday's stunt, which aimed to promote a book about his career as a publicist called Trust Me, I'm Lying, was facilitated by a website called Haro, or "help a reporter out".


Holiday's quote from the NYT... "There is a fuller sound to it, and more depth to the sound," said Ryan Holiday, the New Orleans-based marketing director for American Apparel. He’s a new devotee of jazz and David Bowie, thanks to LPs. “I could hear hands going up and down the frets, and stuff that they probably didn’t want you to hear. Which is a nice little surprise,” he said.

The original NYT story now has an editor's note amending the story to inform readers of Holiday's deception, also indicating that Holiday does not own a turntable. 

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