I’d read in the paper that Plain White T’s would be playing a free concert at the Ocean County Mall at 4:30, so I offered to take Audrey and her friends there. Well, as it turns out, it was all some big promotion for ABC TV, and they managed to keep this nearly captive audience of kids waiting until after 7:20 to see the band, all the while promoting their shows and their sponsors. In fact, they wouldn’t let anyone in unless they filled out a “contest entry form”, which you know is not so much a contest but a blatant attempt to build up a mailing list for advertising. I knew there’d be a catch, but this just shows how low marketing has gone, trying to assail you from all directions at once with co-marketed brands and tie-ins for as long as possible. For the most part, the girls were pretty peeved, everyone was hurting somewhere from standing for so long, but they did like the five songs the band performed when they actually took the stage. I’ve got news for ABC, Sprint, Coke. . .making people irritated with you for pulling a bait and switch like this is not good marketing. Some people might have been exposed to products that they might try, but a lot of them were angry about being stuck there, and will deliberately not be watching your shows or buying your products because of that.