Magical Musings: Issue II - Publicity Killed the Rabbit

Publicity Killed the Rabbit

In every second magic-related article we read in the Indian newspapers, we are told of a world-record holding magician, one with a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The readers take pride in reading that an Indian magician has done the country and its magic proud. But a day may not be too far when one such incident brews up a lot of trouble. Especially since most claims are false.

It is fortunate that the Indian media is generally lethargic in its duty to verify the authenticity of a story. The press blindly carries any story we give them in writing. The recent case of the boy going to receive an international award from NASA is a case in point.

This is indeed sad because a visit to the relevant page on the Guinness website reveals the 22 different magic-related records [see http://snipurl.com/e2x4]. It is very clear that most of our claims DO NOT even exist. Unless we were claiming to have a copy of the book at home!

And for the worse, in this age of copyrights and patents, such a false claim can lead to serious troubles too. With the Guinness and other record books being copyrighted, any false claim to a mention in the said books can be treated as a copyright violation, and do more bad than good.

The PR world firmly believes, “Publicity good or bad, is good publicity”. But this is not necessarily true for us in the world of entertainment, essentially as one brash statement may lead to dishonour in the eyes of our audience. And thus kill our career.

In this age of the Internet, we should remember that information is only one click away… for those who want it.

Published in VMN: April 15, 2005