Why Is CAA Doing Market Research On Michael Jackson's Death?
Twitchell
Monolithic agency CAA is in all kinds of cookie jars, taking percentages of all
kinds of famous cookies' salaries. But did you know about their market research
firm...that's crowdsourcing answers on Michael Jackson's death the night after
it happened?
Ominously named The Intelligence Group, CAA's market research subsidiary "builds
creative solutions for (their) clients." But their "best known division" is
Youth Intelligence. According to their language they're the "premier research
group focused on Gen X and Gen Y (ages 14 to 39)," to all of which I say: nice
demos.
But: do the higher ups at CAA know that the swarmy pollsters Youth Intelligence
put a poll out in the field only a day after Michael Jackson's death, looking to
do focus group work on Jackson's demise? The email:
From: YI PANEL
Subject: the passing of michael jackson
To: [Redacted]
Date: Friday, June 26, 2009, 9:05 PM
Hello friends-
The passing of Michael Jackson was a crazy surprise, and has left many of us
truly saddened. He was a pretty incredible artist whose influence on pop culture
is immeasurable. Because the impact of his music, his fashion, and his talents
was felt by so many around the world, we're very much interested in your
reaction to his passing.
What does Michael Jackson mean to you?
What kind of impact did he have on your life?
Are you doing anything to memorialize him? If so, what?
It would be awesome if you could send us your thoughts by Sunday night - and
thank you for sharing.
The Intelligence Group
Awesome, indeed. We received this email late Friday night; I contacted The
Intelligence Group for comment, they have yet to get back to me.
On that note, we've got three questions for The Intelligence Group:
1. Aren't the results of this research ultimately going to be swayed and too
varied due to the intense newsdump that's taken place over the weekend to be of
any substantial use?
2. Market research one day after Jackson died, with the body still warm, and
someone's looking for answers that will eventually lead them to build a
"creative solution" somewhere?
3. Won't the gigantic celebrities CAA represents - among them, friends and
cohorts of Jackson's, surely - find this a little, uh, callous?
You can reach us here with whatever answers you've got for us. It would be
awesome if you could send us your thoughts by the time your CAA overlords read
this. And thanks for sharing.