A Non-swing and a Miss for Carnival
You know those ideas that look good on paper, but then turn out to be an invitation to either utter doom or at least thousands of personal liability lawsuits? Carnival Cruise Lines had one of these recently, and I can honestly say that, at least in my mind, I told them so.
The vacation provider sent around a release announcing plans for a couple of outdoor Guinness-Book-of-Records publicity stunts meant to publicize its big, big cruise ships and to encourage people to just have more fun . On Oct. 26, the line sponsored the bouncing of two enormous 35-foot beach balls in a downtown Dallas Park. Watch the video here (and try not to notice how close those things are coming to an office block full of glass windows.)
To follow, Carnival promised to build and then break the world’s largest piñata: more than 60 feet tall, 60 long and 23 feet wide, and filled with 8,000 pounds of candy. The event was to take place in a vacant lot on Philadelphia’s South Broad Street on Sunday Nov. 2.
Except it didn’t. Yes, the wrecking ball showed up, but it never came into contact with the big patchwork donkey. Reportedly, the plan never did include smashing open the piñata, which was built of molded plastic over a welded steel framework.
According to eyewitness reports such as that from the Drexel University student paper, the event organizers occasionally sent a “plant” in the crowd to appear to poke the piñata with a stick while remote-controlled trap doors opened, releasing some of the candy. Those feints were then filmed by the organizers.
At least the event’s intent was to release all the candy, whether by wrecking ball or wireless control. But after a delay of more than an hour, the announcement went out that even the candy drop wouldn’t happen after all.
Apparently the large police contingent stepped in with the suggestion that dropping 4 tons of anything, even feathers, on a crowd of 10,000 was perhaps not a good idea public safety-wise. And the picture of a large crowd of kids—many probably still jacked up from that last Halloween candy—scrambling over themselves to get more treats was probably not appealing to law enforcement either.
So an announcement went out that the piñata would stay closed. Candy was made available in large boxes and bins, so the sugar-deprived didn’t go home empty handed.
The piñata did make it into Guinness as the world’s largest, beating out a 48-foot one built in Mexico City in 2006 by the agency for Microsoft Xbox 360. I guess if you build it, records will come; you don’t have to bust it.
But it’s hard to say the event delivered on its promises, explicit or implied. If the crowds who showed up had been told they were only going to get to look at the world’s largest piñata and then be allowed to dip candy out of a bin like they can every day at the supermarket, I think many would have opted to take the kids to ShopRite and then stay home to watch football.
No word available on whether the donkey is still standing in that South Philly lot or still full of candy. The official blog of John Heald, Carnival’s senior cruise director and the emcee for the Philly event, stops dead with a Nov. 2 post inviting visitors to watch a Webcast of the event. A missed opportunity for communication there, for sure.
As for the wrecking ball…Playwright Anton Chekhov had a famous rule of drama: If you show a gun on the wall in Act One, you’d better shoot someone in Act Three. Those crowds were waiting for someone to pull the trigger as promised. And Carnival balked.
In live promotions as in everything else customer-related, the fundamental rule is the same: You can promise what you like, but you gotta deliver. I don’t think thousands of Philly fans think they got what they wanted out of this. Let’s see if Carnival did.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Had Carnival not “Balked” as you say, what would the repurcusions have been then? Carnival was told, NOT suggested to, not break the Pinata. The intent of good was there, but they were overridden by local authorities due to the swelling of the crowd.
Are you saying that Carnival should have just went ahead and smashed the Pinata? What would you be typing had Carnival done that and an individual were killed? Think before you speak (type).
November 9th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I’m not saying at all that Carnival should have gone ahead and disregarded the authorities: quite the opposite. My points are that they should have (a) considered the public safety issue before mounting the event, and (b) separately realized that promising, even implicitly, that they’d use a wrecking ball to smash the pinata set up audience expectations that were sure to be disappointed, undercutting their message with the event. Of course no promotion is worth even risking a single injury. But a little forethought would have raised that question. I think sometimes this industry gets so wrapped up in spectacle that it puts basic common sense to one side, and that’s not good business.
In other words, think before you activate.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:37 am
It’s so easy to play armchair quarterback after the fact.
I guess they should have notified you to get your take on the matter as I’m sure you would have had all the answers and with you leading the charge, there would have been no errors (Maybe if you call 1-800-CARNIVAL prior to the next event they will get you in touch with marketing to get your input).
Let’s face it. Mistakes happen each and everyday. You learn from your mistakes and you grow. Nothing is perfect. Must have been a slow day at the office for you to write this stuff. Hardly newsworth.