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News & ArtsThursday, October 15, 2009
Media / Visual Art Stupid Fucking Credulous Hack of the Day: The Whole Seattle Times
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 10:19 AM
The marketing department at the Seattle Art Museum must be psyched: The Seattle Times just picked up SAM's Michelangelo publicity strategy and played it back as the splashy feature on the front page!
The unbylined caption/"story" beneath the headline and photo reads, "[A]s a fun twist on the Seattle exhibit, SAM is placing a dozen 18-inch-tall copies of 'Little David' and his cart around the area. The museum is encouraging people who find them to take pictures of themselves with the cart and sculpture around town..."
Front-page culture news!
1
This known as a placement. It's hardly worthy of commenting on, other than, yep, this is how it works. Always has.
2
Ugh, I'm surprised they didn't have local artists and business decorate the little david's and place them around town and auction them off at the end for charity.
5
Always has? Steven Bradford, the contemporary daily newspaper attitude toward culture (particularly its treatment of culture as a sidecar to celebrity/gossip coverage and approached in much the same way), is hardly an incontrovertible natural fact. It's something that has developed in the last 20 years alongside various forces, including...the demise of the contemporary daily newspaper.
8
Meh ...
And speaking of marketing, isn't the Stranger at risk of diminishing the Stupid Fucking Credulous Hack® Brand by applying it here ??
And speaking of marketing, isn't the Stranger at risk of diminishing the Stupid Fucking Credulous Hack® Brand by applying it here ??
9
Publicity is publicity. That's how its worked for the smart museums (and the smart institutions and companies) for much more than 20 years. Publicists and reporters and editors work together to get the word out. Often the story and pictures are pretty much handed to them on a silver platter, wrapped in a bow, by the smart publicists.
Yawn
I've only been reading newspapers for 45 years, so I don't know, maybe you're right.
Yawn
I've only been reading newspapers for 45 years, so I don't know, maybe you're right.
10
I may be biased as I work for the Times (not in the newsroom), but... "stupid fucking credulous hack" seems like it should at least be reserved for circumstances in which a reporter or media outlet makes a choice that is directly against the public's interest or masks the "real story" they should be trying to tell. It's really going to be used for THIS? A local newspaper advancing a local museum's marketing plan?
11
"The museum is encouraging people who find them to take pictures of themselves with the cart and sculpture around town..."
gee, that sounds like one of them wacky fun flesh mob intrenety things the kids are doing.
Jinkies, a clue!!! Velma.
gee, that sounds like one of them wacky fun flesh mob intrenety things the kids are doing.
Jinkies, a clue!!! Velma.
12
And if the Stranger gets involved in this "little David" promo, one may be certain that a feature on "comparative penises" won't be far behind. Or is SAM going to Vaticanize the statuettes ŕ la the sexless Oscars?
17
Not to point out the obvious here but any encouragement in promoting visual arts shouldn't be criticized. This exhibit of Michelangelo makes his work accessible to young people. And it's not as if every person in Seattle has the financial means to see the real David in Florence, Italy.
If you want to criticize someone, go after the local gallery owners that are too afraid to present work that isn't saleable. Hell, I've seen better shows in St. Petersburg, Florida.
If you want to criticize someone, go after the local gallery owners that are too afraid to present work that isn't saleable. Hell, I've seen better shows in St. Petersburg, Florida.
18
@ 10 & 17, I agree with both of your points. There seems to obviously be other agendas at work here.
21
Hmm. The only "stupid fucking credulous hack" I see around here is Jen. But then, that's nothing out of the ordinary.
22
Yeah, what a bunch of assholes for pointing out the exhibit at Seattle's premier cultural venue. And having a little fun with it. Why can't even be cool and serious like the gang at the stranger?
23
So Seattle's premiere museum is promoting a big new exhibit, and the daily newspaper runs a picture and mini-story about it on the front page.
Yes, that is positively shocking and absolutely the lowest form of journalism.
Weak stuff, Jen.
Yes, that is positively shocking and absolutely the lowest form of journalism.
Weak stuff, Jen.
25
What's the problem, Jen? It seems like a nice mention for the museum, an interesting activity for readers, and a pretty picture for the front page. For 50 cents, that isn't a bad value from a minor daily paper.
26
No one said it's Pulitzer stuff, Jen. It's just letting people know about something going on in the city. Jesus.
27
God forbid the Seattle Times employ a writer who promotes himself endlessly (Savage), other writers who wet their pants about appearing on KUOW (Sanders) or promote their own porno show (Hump).
what hypocrites.
what hypocrites.
28
All I know is that it's spectacularly stupid for the Times to run this as their most important story of the day, considering they are the primary newspaper serving several million people. Of course, I think that about five times a week.
29
Doesn't anyone remember the Leonardo da Vinci show that the Henry Gallery put on years ago under the salesmanship of its head salesman Harvey West? It was based on a single painting (unconvincingly) deemed to be a Leonardo in breathless prose by a U of W art history faculty member, Joanne Snow Smith. The show was greatly enlarged by all sorts of related minor material.
That was the low ebb of museum hucksterism.
These, at least, are actually by Michelangelo.
That was the low ebb of museum hucksterism.
These, at least, are actually by Michelangelo.
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