CU debate made fake money
The University of Colorado Boulder announced this week that it spent over $764,000 to host a Republican presidential debate last October. The university says it raked in about $4.2 million in publicity value, a denomination that surely has more value than actual money.
After commissioning a $10,000 study, CU found that it earned about $300,000 in “publicity value” for a short introductory video that aired before the debate. There was also the equivalent of 3.87 million actual dollars gained via the numerous articles that mentioned CU by name, including the several hundred that lambasted CU for holding a debate in an arena that held 11,000 people and only letting in 1,000 people, of which, less than 100 were actually students on campus.
It’s great that CU earned 4.2 million Internet points, but the whole debacle takes the “All publicity is good publicity,” mantra too far. Sure, I can go out on Pearl St. in a biologically accurate Winnie the Pooh costume — that is, red shirt and no pants — screaming for Christopher Robin and Tigger to come out and play or else I’ll start lighting things on fire, and I’d probably gain the equivalent of $4.2 million in publicity value too. I’d earn a jail sentence, but think about all that PR value!
We’re not saying CU committed any crimes of course, but if we’re judging the worth of an event based on fake monetary values, then we should at least factor in the numerous protests against both the folks the school hosted and the school itself.
West vs. Bowie
Twittersphere was aghast this week with rumors that Kanye West had plans to release a David Bowie tribute album in honor of the rock star’s recent passing. The Guardian published a post in favor of the tribute, stating that West is the only performer out there these days risky enough to emulate the British icon. Other Bowie fans were not so gracious. In fact 16,000 of them signed a petition hoping to prevent the infamous rapper from desecrating their sacred tunes. Because, obviously, West has proven himself rational enough to acquiesce to public opinion and reverse his ways based on such a request. Obviously.
But let’s set the record straight. West has no plans to release such an album and all this media hoopla was for nothing. However, fans can look forward to West’s newest album set to release in February. And just to prove that West has changed his ways, the new songs are about rainbows and butterflies, unicorns and strawberries.
In other news, a week after Bowie’s death, scientists have discovered a Neptune-sized planet in our solar system lurking behind Pluto. Coincidence? We think not.
