REVEALED: The ridiculous dead octopus, its links to DIC, Blackstone, ex-Liverpool owner Tom Hicks and Paul Daniels, and PR gone bonkers

REVEALED: The ridiculous dead octopus, its links to DIC, Blackstone, ex Liverpool owner Tom Hicks and Paul Daniels, and PR gone bonkers, editors choiceThe death of an octopus called Paul in a German aquarium has triggered a global surge in news coverage that underlines the vacuity of celebrity culture, the power of anything football-related to attract coverage, and the relentless march of clever PR.

Far from being a simple cephalopod that got lucky on a 256-1 chance of predicting eight two-option outcomes in a row (matches at the 2010 World Cup), it turns out Paul was / is a publicity stunt for a global entertainment conglomerate, the Merlin Entertainments Group (MEG).

The biggest single shareholders in MEG are Blackstone (one-time favoured financiers of the former Liverpool owner, Tom Hicks), while until recently another stockholder in MEG was Dubai International Capital, former bidders for Liverpool.

Among other MEG assets, the British-based organisation owns and / or controls the Sea Life group of aquariums, one of which in Oberhausen, Germany, latterly housed Paul, who has, incidentally, already been replaced with another octopus, originally called, errm, Paul. Touching.

MEG also owns Legoland theme parks in various countries, the Madame Tussauds chain of waxwork exhibitions, amusement parks including Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures, and the London Eye.

Paul the Octopus, who provided colourful if inane fodder for umpteen news and broadcast organisations during the World Cup, especially those with no rights to any live action in South Africa, was also credited with predicting correct match results for Euro 2008 games. It should be stressed that, contrary to s! ome repo rts, that was actually a different octopus, and that the different octopus got other results wrong, but such facts shouldnt get in the way of a good story.

Paul and the Oberhausen aquarium and MEG got lucky when Paul defied the odds to pick winners this summer. Since then he has been relentlessly marketed as a brand to make cash.

Ridiculous though it seems, he did indeed have his own agent, Chris Davis, who did 30 media interviews yesterday, including one during a breaking news special on BBC TV in a segment that lasted 5 minutes and 42 seconds. That ridiculous excuse for a piece of public service broadcasting can be viewed within this link. (Second piece of video).

So how on earth did Paul the Octopus get an agent? Well Davis, who has a stable of showbiz clients that includes TV magician Paul Daniels, Daniels wife Debbie McGee, former Wet Wet Wet singer Marti Pellow, former Neighbours star Mark Little, and actor Ken Morley of Corrie fame, has done PR work in the past for MEG.

And there was a situation where the aquarium had 200 media people asking questions per day in the summer, he tells sportingintelligence. And they needed someone to handle it, so I became Pauls agent.

Cue some truly ridiculous stories about the octopus, including one that he would record an album of Elvis songs. Chris Davis insists the quotes in the piece linked here were fabricated.

True, however, is that books have been written or are planned about Paul, as are cuddly toys, an iPhone app, and a documentary by film company Cinema Vertige.Due for release in the new year, according to the news section of the firms website, its called Tentacles of Divination (The Extraordinary Tribulations and Fabulous Destiny of Paul the Psychic Octopus, Seer of Seers).

And its being made in association with . . . Merlin Entertainments Group, who own Sea Life, where attendances have climbed up to fourfold on the back of Paul stories. (Octopus, not Daniels).

Davis insists that conspir! acy theo ries about Pauls death are nonsense and says that a Chinese film-maker Jiang Xiao was just trying to cash in on Pauls fame by renaming an unrelated work Who Killed Paul the Octopus?

As the already oft-repeated gag goes, this story still has legs even if nobody can predict which way theyll go.

Chris Davis says Paul earned hundreds of thousands of pounds since the summer, and was heading towards being a brand worth 1m by January.The profits will apparently go to a turtle sanctuary in Greece.

And the hugely valuable PR will go to MEG and its firms.

Final word to Chris Davis on Pauls career: I ink its all over.

To read more from Nick, visit sportingintelligence.com


World Soccer News | Video | Podcast | Gallery | Live Streaming

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mr. Hodgson Or: How We Learned To Stop Worrying And Blame The Manager

Image
The manager has risen from club secretary to official face of the club since the creation of football teams worldwide. He has moved from the man that kept the record books to man that is larger than the football team he manages. Commentators and pundits refer to Fergusons United or Wengers beautiful, passing football. He even has books written about him. The Manager by Barney Ronay, an excellent book that discusses the rise of the manager into the modern game, unearths some of the origins of the managers image and attempts todiscuss what kind of person the manager really is. While the book wasnt ever intended to be an academic study of the merits of various tactical thoughts of managers, it does address some of the often listed character traits ofsuccessfulmanagers. When all these traits are put together, to many the manager appears to be a father figure, a scary headmaster, a politician youd like to have a beer with, or somecombination. Yet despite all this popularity, he is little mo...
Keep reading

England World Cup camps need to lose doomsday siege mentality

Image
One day last week, near the junction of Maude Street and Rivonia Road, in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, a line of smiling young men in shirts and shorts strolled along the pavement towards their hotel. Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Robin Van Persie, Dirk Kuyt, Mark Van Bommel and the rest of the Dutch squad waited at the lights until there was a break in the traffic and then ambled across the road. These were some of the best known players in the world, superstars of the game, walking along city streets on their way back from training and looking as though they did not have a care. There was no security with them. None to speak of, anyway. There were no photographers running in front of them and taking their picture. There were no girlfriends tottering along beside them. None of them wore headphones. They did not insulate themselves. They seemed at one with their surroundings. It was only a snapshot of the way the Dutch are living their lives at this World Cup but ...
Keep reading

How an American Influence Is Rubbing Off On Manchester City

Image
Manchester Citys match day experience is becoming more and more American with each new season. While Maine Road was what you could expect a typical British experience of what it was like to see an English football match in the 80s, the City of Manchester Stadium experience seems as American as apple pie. In previous seasons, City have tried to focus on improving the match-day experience. Theyve added buskers, i.e. public performers, around the ground to add to the atmosphere. And recently theyve adopted American entertainment methods such as turning down the house lights before kick-off and trying to get everyone excited for the big match. Theyve also been a pioneer in English football in their usage of American social media sites such as Facebook, Foursquare, Flickr and others to create a bond with supporters. And now for their first home match in the league for the 2010-11 season, against Liverpool tonight, theyre set to unveil two new features. Both of them have a uniquely American...
Keep reading