Despite the best-laid plans, history is littered with tales of businesses whose marketing stunts ran amok. To help you learn from other business’s mistakes–and avoid these PR nightmares–we feature the second installment in this week-long series of some marketing stunts that flopped.
In 1990, Jim McCafferty, a magician turned marketer, was trying to promote his marketing startup business by allowing himself to be put in a straightjacket and then enclosed in a welded-shut steel cage and hoisted by a crane to a height of 300 feet. But during the stunt, the cage malfunctioned before he could attach himself to a harness.
Time ran out, and the cage plunged 60 feet before Jim clicked himself into the harness, just seconds before the cage smashed into the ground. He was taken to the hospital suffering from first- and second-degree rope burns.
The Lesson: Although McCafferty has a multimillion-dollar business today, thanks in part to some of the business his stunt generated, no entrepreneur should ever risk his or her life to attract attention.
Photo by name.
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