Now the folk I’ve asked are fifty-fifty on whether this is a stunt or whether this “rhino escape drill” was carried out in earnest.
My money is on stunt. And a belter at that.
For those who didn’t catch this gem (and if you didn’t, which rock have you been under lately?), a certain zoo in Japan has captured global media attention with its “drill” for the event that one of its rhinos figured out how to escape from its pen …
The genius of this stunt for me is, in part, the bravery of the zoo investing in an idea that, if nothing else, has cost a pretty penny in man-power.
But it’s also an idea that should teach us all that the trick of a great PR stunt for an attraction is that fine balance between being mental enough to make people smile and being taken seriously enough.
Just so that the media take it at face-value and broadcast it with, at once, an earnest “look what these nutters have done” and at precisely the same time, a knowing wink that suggests that they are somehow in on the gag.
It should remind us all that, just sometimes, the silliest of thoughts can take off and capture the imagination. And that no one in this business should shy away from lateral thinking when it comes to creative ideas.
Simple genius.
This article was first published on PR Moment. But we thought that we would put it up here too. Just in case anyone missed it, I guess
