China Meets Lady GaGa

Who says marketing doesn’t work?

It’s fashionable these days to poo-poo mass media.

I’ve made a pretty good living in broadcasting for 30 odd years (those who know me are saying, ‘Very, very odd years’) and still do, yet even I poo-poo it some days.

I see where the future is heading and I don’t want to look like a cretin.

I also don’t want to look like myself, but that’s a different, and altogether more expensive topic for another day.

Today, I only have to mention two words to prove that mass media is still thriving: Lady GaGa and iPad.

Ok, the math majors among you realize that’s actually four words, if you count “and,” which you shouldn’t since it’s only used as a connector, so let’s settle on three words, though technically I’m not sure “GaGa” is a real word.

But it soon will be.

Check this out: If you want to be seen as hip and happening in China, you no longer use the phrase “Oh my God!”, or even OMG in Chintextese.

That is soooooo old-fashioned, dude. I bet you still don’t watch TV in 3D either, do you?

No, the hot new exclamation for anyone who is at the apex of the social strata in Shanghai is to say, “Oh My Lady GaGa!”

Seriously.

Like, Dude (or Comrade Mao, or Fearless Leader Guy) I am so NOT a member of Falun Gong! Oh My Lady GaGa, how could you even think that??

Considering Lady GaGa has never once appeared on a stage in China, and that China is fairly tough when it comes to internet and media censorship, I’m assuming GaGa’s appearance on the MTV Music Awards Show wasn’t aired in prime time in Beijing, its pretty remarkable her name has become iconic so soon. Especially when you recall that 1 billion people there can’t even understand a word she says.

Lady GaGa didn’t get this big selling sampler CDs out of her trunk, did she? Whatever else you want to conclude about GaGa, you have to allow she’s a brilliant marketer of her brand.

So, the take-away from today’s post is: All you have to do to sell a billion or so of whatever it is you’re selling is be as weird as possible, get your act banned in China, and wait for the orders to roll in.

Oh My Freaking Lady GaGa, dude, you are going to be soooo rich! We’ll do lunch, and share the poo-poo platter…

Maybe this version of her new song passed the censor’s knife in China: