Catch Him If You Can
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Qatar People, Qatar Interviews|
Get to know more about the long, long history that makes up Tom Collins dating back to the 19th century. | |
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Date:
07/01/2009 | |
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Tom Collins is back.
And he’s talking about you.
Not much is known about him, other than that he has a lot to
say. Usually about you, or someone you know. And he spends
a lot of time out, in bars, restaurants, and clubs.
Oh, and that he's completely made up. 134 years ago in 1874.
“It was this one little bar in New York that started the
conversation. They had someone who’d go around saying
‘have you seen Tom Collins? He’s been talking about you’
and people would start going to these bars and asking for
Tom Collins,” said Lauren Fryer, Director of Public Relations
at the Ritz-Carlton Doha.
This month, the Ritz puts the myth back in the spotlight, with
a selection of Collins-themed cocktails in Habanos, including
a viral marketing campaign to rekindle the gossipy-magic.
There’s some debate about who and when the drink was
invented- some think it was a waiter in London named John
Collins. Others think it was simply a sly promotional tactic by
a bar to lure customers in, demanding to see Tom Collins, and
then present them with a drink. Either way, it was one of the
first viral marketing campaigns, sweeping across the United
States to become known as the Great Tom Collins Hoax of
1874, staring a fictional Where’s Waldo and sending the
population off on Carmen-Sandiego hunts all over the country.
“Viral marketing people just assume it’s a modern
day thing, viral marketing only came out with social
mediums, it’s only come out with the internet, it’s only
come out with online chats and twitter and things like
that,” said Fryer. “But to think that so many years ago
they came up with this concept!”
And it worked- the legend had people scurrying fast
in all the major cities, with newspapers diving in
reporting his location, whereabouts, and the events of
the search (as can be expected when herds of young
men and bars are involved things often got exciting).
But if Tom Collins had a hometown, it’d be New York.
The hoax “belong[ed] to New York, where it was played
with immense success to crowd houses until it played
out,” wrote the Steubenville Daily Herald in 1874,
“frantic young men rushed wildly through the streets of
the city on Saturday hunting for libelous Tom Collins.”
Today, viral marketing is a necessity- there are
seminars to teach people how to use twitter, facebook,
sms and a thousand other technological wonders to get
their message across. Subversive ads like the ones run
by Volkswagen in the 1970’s, underground pop culture
explosions like the buzz surrounding the Blair Witch
project in the 1990’s, and even political campaigns like
the one run by American president Barack Obama owe
a lot to the pioneering efforts of syrup and soda.
“It all started with a drink! And to think in 1874
they were actually playing this hoax on people, it’s
incredible.”
For more information on the promotion, call 484-8000.
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