Hello, Gorgeous!

The younger readers out there may not really know of Barbra Streisand's career before her recent series of comedy films, but she was (is) a phenomenal singing talent, and at a very young age (for those days) became one of the most famous personalities in the music business.

If by chance you are interested in how publicity was managed in the pre-internet area, this is an interesting read. Notwithstanding her talent, it was essential that word get out about her, and she fashioned an image that would help in her self-promotion, particularly her "kooky" image. When the development of a musical about Fanny Brice was underway, the campaign to win her the lead focused on making sure that she became associated with the persona of Fanny Brice, including getting an organization to award her the "First Annual Fanny Brice Award" (needless to say, there were no subsequent Annual Fanny Brice Awards). Even if you have no particular interest in Barbra Streisand, reading the mechanics of promoting a show business personality in those days is fascinating.

(I wish I was back in Dr. Frechette's media relations class, as this would have been a great topic for one of the assignments.)

More on the unfortunate trend of "guerilla reviews"

A while back, I watched a documentary about Michael Jackson preparing for the "tour that never happened" . Though I was never a big fan, and never actually owned any of his recordings, I was struck by the thought that those of us of a certain age never really knew a time in our adult lives when he wasn't a star, and when there wasn't one of his songs playing on the radio (that thing we listened to before music downloads).

So when I saw this book at the library, I thought I would brush up on the Michael Jackson story.

As I began reading, I found the book slow going, and as is common nowadays, went to look at some reviews to see if others felt this way. When I went to the Amazon reviews, I did notice many negative ones, but as I read them, I wasn't sure how much credence to put in them (I don't consider having a Michael Jackson tattoo or referring to him as "my man, Michael" on the part of the user as providing any special gravitas). So, I proceeded on, and finally finished the book.

So, I both was, and wasn't surprised to read that there was a concerted effort to once again hijack Amazon's review system, in a post on the Consumerist web site. The post was based on a story in the New York Times.


I had written about this phenomenon in an earlier post, when an activist group hijacked the reviews of a book (that they apparently hadn't really even read).

Is there an answer to this? Perhaps restrict reviews to those who have actually purchased the book through Amazon? A system of "certified" reviews?