Re: Mudslinging and cyberspace seem a natural combination for this leaf-shaped island of 23 million people
- From: ggg <goodgutgut@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 05:14:29 GMT
Saturday, November 26, 2005
NEW YORK
Ratted out
RONG XIAOQING
Prev. Story
It is getting increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction
here. In a city of opportunities and wannabes, the home of crazy
ideas, and the capital of advertising and public relations, every day
can be April Fool's day.
First, there are the independent artists. If you pick up a wallet in
Times Square, you might become part of the narrative art of Patrick
Killoran. The artist scattered 150 wallets with fake currency from a
fictional country, and false ID papers, to test people's reactions.
Then there are the brand-name marketers who hire people to go out to
the streets and into the clubs to use their products, in an attempt to
make them cool and chic. This has been done for mobile phones, purses,
the latest vodka and even more mundane products. For example, if you
see a person coughing heavily on the subway, you had better offer him
or her a Ricola cough drop: you could win US$1 million if the person
you helped is an "official mysterious cougher" sent out by the
manufacturer.
There is also a scary aspect to the city's deceptive side. The
tabloids have for weeks been obsessed by the story of a journalist and
drama writer who dressed up as a firefighter to gain access to the
apartment of a young woman on Halloween. He then sexually assaulted
and tortured her over many hours.
I almost fell for a hoax the other day when I passed by Washington
Square, where striking student employees of New York University were
holding a protest in their pursuit of a labour contract. Lending its
support to their demonstration was a giant inflatable rat, which is
often used by the city's unions to depict bad employers.
But what were these other protest signs, nearby, being held up by
another group of protesters? They told me they were animal rights
advocates from an organisation called the Great Pointed Archer
Society, who were sick of rats being used as a symbol for greedy
bosses. A woman known as Debbie "The Rat Lady" Ducommun told curious
passers-by about the positive side of rats, and people held signs
declaring that "[rats] are New Yorkers, too".
What an interesting yarn, I thought: New York, a city of advocates,
even had backers for rats. But when I insisted on talking to the
founder of the organisation, the Rat Lady conceded that it was all a
stunt organised by a public-relations company to show how easy it is
to promote a ridiculous idea and manipulate the media. The Rat Lady
was a rat expert hired for the show. The story was covered by some of
the New York papers - and now by me - as a PR hoax. The fiction became
fact. The manipulative circle was complete.
.
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