WINNER: W ORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT FOR
W WE HD LAUNCH: HD REFRIGERATOR
To: Gary Davis, VP, Corp Comm., WWE
Fr: Dewey, Cheatham & Howe, Attorneys at Law
Re: HD Refrigerator
Mr. Davis:
We feel we have an actionable case
against you, Mr. Geof Rochester and
WWE for your January 2008 promotion, which touted WWE HD’s launch.
Despite winning the award for best
tchotchke, your entry caused considerable suffering and distress to our client,
CableFAX editor Seth Arenstein. The
damages we seek are outlined below.
Quoting from your CableFAXIES entry,
you wanted to “insure an immediate
reaction” from affiliates and trade press
“in a way that boldly stood apart from
the standard clutter…” Our response to this, Mr. Davis, is oh,
yeah. Mr. Arenstein was accosted
numerous times by agents of a
delivery company. The agents
informed him that he be present on a given
date/time/place to receive an undisclosed package from
an undisclosed source. This uncertainty resulted in Mr.
Arenstein missing several work days so he could review his
federal tax returns back to 1997. We believe the unnecessary stress you caused our client could be worth millions.
On delivery day, your package arrived approximately
seven hours late. [This is not germane to the case since
Mr. Arenstein tells us late arrival is standard procedure in
many parts of the cable industry.]
Your entry says, “we were confident [the refrigerator]
…would have maximum impact.” We agree. The 150-pound
box you sent Mr. Arenstein was left at a loading dock. Mr.
Arenstein had to carry it up two flights of stairs to his office.
The “maximum impact” was a wrenched back and a hernia.
While these injuries prove your point that WWE in HD “is so
real it hurts,” the result to our client was that he was unable
to play softball for two months. For that inconvenience we
are seeking the sum of 27 cents.
Your entry notes the item is “a mini-refrigerator.” Mr.
Davis, please. We are ready to dispute this in a court of
law. While said tchotchke is perhaps a small item for beefy
wrestlers, for trade hacks whose idea of vigorous exercise is
jumping to conclusions twice a day, those refrigerators are
anything but mini.
Ice packs included with WWE’s
“mini-refrigerator” did little to ease
Mr. Arenstein’s back pain incurred
when he carried the fridge up 2
flights of stairs to his office.
Honorable Mentions:
My TiVo Gets Me—TiVo
dispatched “antenna people”
who urged consumers in five
markets to visit mytivogetsme.
com to learn how TiVo gets
them. The antenna headbands
generated buzz and got men-
tioned in a Leno monologue.
Tennis Channel’s Play on
the Clay Acrylic—Talk about
connecting with an event.
Affiliates felt like they were in
Paris with Tennis Channel’s
tchotchke—an acrylic tube
surrounding bits of red clay
from Roland Garros Stadium’s
famed surface.
Retirement Living TV’s
STDs Fact Book—Some
20% of people with HIV/AIDS
in the U.S. are 50-plus, and the
number is rising. At appropri-
ate trade events, RLTV distrib-
uted condoms branded with its
blue logo and a fact book on
sexually transmitted diseases.
Fast Facts
\ WWE included dozens of
branded ice packs along with
the 50 HD mini-refrigerators,
which were also branded.
The ice packs emphasized
the message that WWE in HD
was so real it hurts. An accompanying letter said, “Ice
packs are enclosed to take
care of all injuries that may
occur from the experience.”
\ The refrigerator mailing
was timed to coincide with
WWE HD’s initial PPV foray,
January’s Royal Rumble,
which spurred significant
buys for WWE’s affiliates. It
also set the stage for WWE’s
March 30 WrestleMania 24,
traditionally cable’s top PPV
event of the year.
