The russkie secret agents united with Repse’s relatives and launched a preventive strike against our beloved Latvia.

The above statement is better read with one’s tongue firmly pressed against one’s cheek.

Shocker!

Rīga, 26.okt., LETA. Mazsalacas novadā it kā nokritušais “meteorīts” bijis mobilo sakaru operatora SIA “Tele2” atbalstīts inscenējums, to aģentūrai LETA apliecināja uzņēmuma mārketinga un tirdzniecības direktors Jānis Spoģis.

“Mūsu mērķis ir iedvesmot Latvijas sabiedrību,” sacīja Spoģis, “mēs vēlamies uzsvērt, ka Latvija var izdarīt daudz ko.”

“Mēs redzam, ka ar šādu notikumu Latvijas vārds ir izskanējis pasaulē, Latvija ir interesanta pasaulē, un nevis ar to, ka ir krīze, ir slikti un grūti, bet gan ar to, ka pie mums notiek kaut kas radošs un interesants. Tas ir unikāls panākums un daļa no mūsu komunikācijas,” teica uzņēmuma pārstāvis.

Spoģis solīja, ka uzņēmums noteikti kompensēs valstij nodarītos zaudējumus.

I hope that they send the jerks a bill for every santim that was spent by public services in evaluating this crap. I guess that I will finally overcome my inertia and leave Telegribi.

I see that they will.

They will, but I’m tempted to leave them also. This makes me mad - what if there was a fire in the area and the emergency services are busy with this crap? It’s ridiculous.

I found the person responsible - Crazy John!!

http://www.zip.lv/show/?i=843649

My commentary about the Mazsalaca meteorite scam can be found at http://www.latvia.lv.  So how does this compare to the US Baloon Boy scam?

Ojar -
It would have been no harm, no foul save for two things:
1. They called emergency services (or allowed them to be called). If a real emergency had occurred or a first-responder had been harmed, what would the result have been?
2. Tele2 will pay for the costs, I know, but it will ultimately effect subscribers’ bills. Not me for much longer.

To me this was just not funny, and played with the lives of people that we must trust to be available when they are needed.

It’s a bit shallow, the commentary. Fluffy. Cosy. To the tune of, Move right along, nothing to see here.

The core difference between the US baloon boy scam and the Latvian meteorite is that in the latter the government and the military were involved. Human resources of the government have been wasted and diverted away from real problems on investigating something that was a cynical PR stunt. What if someone’s house burned in the area and people had died and the police and firefighters were involved in the stupid scam? Ironically, if the goal was to divert attention away from the crisis, coming out as a sponsor of the scam, the telecommunication company turned the coverage back to the crisis. A tongue-in-cheek story became a story of big important people being fools amidst the economic crisis of the independent Latvia.

And, no, I’m not upset because I was had. I like a good joke. I like a good practical joke. I’ve pulled many jokes and have been a victim of several myself. So my outrage is not at the fact that it was a hoax of international proportion. My outrage is that at the time when the government is chopping the budget left and right, when hospitals are being closed, when the emergency services are under severe shortage of funding, we have a smartass ad executive who decides to play a trick for the sake of publicity.

If it was possible, I’d sue the company for the moral damages to the state, the police officers, the firefighters, the scientists, and the local community.

It is a page right out of the TV show Mad Men, the name ad men gave themselves. Today’s open letter by Eriks Stendzenieks filled with cynicism adds more fuels to the fire, in my opinion.

P.S. The first thing I said when I saw a Leta news item about a man who climbed Vansu Tilts was “This is LMT’s answer to Tele 2.”

Tom - clearly if something had gone wrong and someone had gotten hurt, the response (and mine) would have been different. Thankfully nothing like that happened. As I told the Latvian press today, I don’t endorse this kind of thing and don’t think it provides Latvia with positive (or negative) publicity. It’s a short-lived, YouTube generated media event. Without a doubt, Tele2 customers will be the final arbiters on whether this was a good marketing tactic or not.

However, I think this, just like the Balloon Boy scam, is a good subject for media analysts to debate. How much is the media to blame for disseminating rumors and unchecked stories? The mad rush to ‘be the first’ with a story leads to this kind of thing. I recently saw a story in the US about how a satirical article about a non-existent Obama dissertation got conservative commentators in a mad huff. I thought the best ‘apology’ came from Rush Limbau, who condemned the dissertation, but when he learned it was a fake, he said “well, its still the kind of thing Obama would write, even if he didn’t’

The world has always been full of scam artists, but this age of information overload and Twittering nabobs of nonsense has made it a lot easier to fool a lot of people a lot of the time.

My mission is to turn lemons into lemonade. My commentary does provide some nice tourism publicity for Mazsalaca and Saaremaa….

Aleksejs - as I told Tom, had something indeed gone wrong, the response would have been very different.
I totally disagree with those who think this brought some positive publicity to Latvia. How? For whom? When we talk about target audiences for positive press, we mention foreign investors, export buyers, foreign governments and tourists. Don’t think this will attract investment or political support, and it wont sell any Latvian products abroad. Had there really been a meteorite, it might have stirred some tourist interest.

But my commentaries are to be read just like your first post here - with tongue firmly in cheek.

My mission is to turn lemons into lemonade. My commentary does provide some nice tourism publicity for Mazsalaca and Saaremaa….

Sounds like the Marchiavellian principle of the end justifying the means applies to advertising and promotion. How do you live with yourself? The traditional answer in this case is: on a pile of money.

Certainly, the competition is a factor in the coverage. Certainly, publication of unchecked facts is at play. Certainly, media is flawed. But it appears though among the real media there should be a standard, a moral code of behavior. And Rush Limbaugh is not a journalist. He never claimed to be. He’s a completely different story altogether.

Ojar,
I love that area and am glad to see it get a boost in a positive way. This is not it.

As far as “if someone had been hurt,” could you (or they) had predicted that? Oddly, someone may still get hurt. I wonder how many sick-days will come from officers or others standing in the cold and mud during the night. Stupid, just stupid.

I was reading the open letter that Aleks linked to. It is absurd. Does he really think that we should all just chuckle about this? Okay, I will hijack their service and then offer to pay them just the salaries and electric costs of the joke. We, LV, have been forced by Tele2 to carry the cost (in overhead, training etc) that allowed them to do this stupid joke.

My bottom line is that Tele2 acted recklessly and should be held to real account. Not just by paying out of pocket costs. They should be fined more than just a token for risking the lives of people.

And publicity? The mouse that was gored. My American friends on Facebook only know that a hoax occurred. No positive association, just a bit more embarrassment.

But my commentaries are to be read just like your first post here - with tongue firmly in cheek.

I guess I’m losing my sense of irony because to me it sounded like your commentary finished with the thought that no harm was done. Has the whole ordeal served to any benefit to the Republilc of Latvia and its people? Should people be fed all kinds of nonsense to divert their attention to important things?

Nope, no ends justifying means here. I had nothing to do with this and wouldn’t have supported it. Nor do I praise it. But yes, like a cop, I am trying to get people to move on. Ultimately, public opinion will decide whether such pranks are welcome, and I hope admen and marketeers will take note.

As for the US. I agree about Limbaugh. But I have been following the White House-Fox News war of words. From what I can gather from the web, there are serious questions being raised about the role of the press in creating news, not just reporting it.  Seems like Fox News ‘reporters’ stir up crowds and then report on their enthusiasm. For real news, I rely on the Colbert Report and the Daily Show.