Before & After : Creative thinking in business

Weird Al Yankovic has always been a tad different. Yeah, different - another word for creative, right?

Here’s a guy who has made a living recording songs that most people listen to over and over - like twice. Hey, what am I saying? The guy sells tons of records! And they’re funny.

Well, now Al’s become “different” in his marketing of a song as well. Like 180° from convention.

You see, pop artists make a living selling songs, right? Selling. Like you give me money, I give you a song. I mean, they gotta’ eat. Well, The Weird One got into what he calls a “political” battle with James Blunt’s record label when he parodied “You’re Beautiful” recently. The Weird version is “You’re pitiful” (180° Thinking again). But, after getting Blunt’s permission, Atlantic stepped in and told Al he can’t put the song on his new CD. Al’s solution? He’s giving it away. Giving. No money. Listen here, it’s free.

Free? That’s pitiful marketing. Or is that brilliant? (it got me to the Weird Al site).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Creative thinking, Lobotomy files, Great creative thinkers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.