jick said:
It has got to be "other" but many come to mind that you should have included among their stunts:
-Lost Achtung Tapes (due to the experimental nature of the album, leaking the tapes early was able to give them initial fan reaction to see whether they would push forward with the new sound)
-Lost Laptop With Lyrics (got everyone's attention that U2 were working on an album)
-Leaked version of Electrical Storm to force them to move the release of Electrical Storm earlier due to "public demand" (hype generated for the song which never picked up)
-Their "only" cd copy of HTDAAB was allegedly lost in France thus having them announce that if the album surfaces anywhere they would release it early in iTunes. (An early plug for iTunes)
...but my favorite publicity stunt is Bono's Save-The-World front which gives U2 publicity for the right reasons (as compared to Eminem for example) and it helps album sales.
Cheers,
J
Hehe well theres a lot of conspiracy theories there Jick
Working in advertising and marketing, I'm definitely not naive enough to think that none of them can be publicity stunts. However, I personally think one or two of them most certainly aren't publicity stunts as I think they are a bit too elaborate and don't serve enough genuine purpose, although I'll put my hands up and say its not impossible.
- Achtung Tapes...
I remember reading a report that the FBI were involved in investigating this when the 2 double-LP sets 'The New U2' surfaced circa Jan 1991. There was a report in NME saying as much which I have a cutting of somewhere. I remember it quite well as I was a little bit worried as I'd be listening to the tapes for a few weeks previous
Several UK record dealers were arrested during record fair swoops involving the BPI and had the vinyls confiscated from memory. Your suggestion is mildly plausible, but personally I think they'd leak something a little bit more polished and without the umpteen Rickenbacker 12 string overdubs of Salome - as good as they are!
-HTDAAB CD
It's not unbelievable that this was a stunt to scare people off illegally downloading any leaks etc, and/or plugging iTunes but for me its too elaborate, and I personally don't believe the band members would do anything like this or sanction anything of this kind dreamed up by marketing executives. Also the police were supposily heavily involved with this incident.
Some other publicity stunts (or at least partially)...
> ATYCLB Airship
There was going to be an ATYCLB airship flying over the UK during the week of the albums release. I'm pretty sure I remember hearing a Radio 1 competition to fly in it. I think it might have been cancelled due to bad weather. Anyone else remember or have I lost the plot
> Zoo Clothing Store, Carnaby Street, Soho, London
A gig in a shop window to promote the release of Achtung Baby - footage of which ended up in the EBTTRT video.
> The Fly Promo video
The internal studio shots were all done in Dublin. However the rest of the video was shot during a mad few days in London. There's a great review of this in the issue of Propaganda that followed which reported on Bono's mischevious activities, stealing apples, directing traffic, playing with buses etc. Although it was a videoshoot for The Fly, it sort of was a publicity stunt as the new look Bono (who many people may have not even twigged who it was) was handing out Zoo TV leaflets to passers-by.
I think my favourite is probably the LA rooftop Streets videoshoot, this is legendary even amongst non-U2 fans.