How Def Leppard Can Really Screw Up Your Next Company Function...

So, you're brainstorming what band you can get for the next company celebration/outing/shindig.  Here's what you're looking for - you want them to be:

-Cool

-Buzzworthy among your company employees and customers

-Worthy of a little media coverage

-Consistent with your CEO's image if he/she is going to be on stage

-Capable of "Rocking It" in their own unique way

Here's one thing you may want to add to the list - Have they ever actually seen or used your product/service?  If not, you may want to write a product knowledge session into the contract.  Why's this on my mind?

Def Leppard recently showed up at a Detroit Red Wings preseason function to help get the new hockey season launched in the states.  Makes sense - after all, if the new season is upon us, it must be time to "Pour some Sugar" on somebody, or at the very least "Armageddon It". 

Unfortunately, any rocking that occurred was neutralized by the band's complete lack of understanding of hockey and the Stanley Cup.  From Yahoo Sports:

"The Detroit Red Wings may be feeling a twinge of embarrassment after their 3-2 home-opening loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, in which the Stanley Cup champions passed the puck like a remedial-level pee-wee team.

That is, until Def Leppard's Joe Elliott redefined the concept of embarrassment during one of their NHL Face-Off Rocks segments at the Fox Theater in Detroit. This is what you get for booking a band from England: Drive on the wrong side of the road, place the holiest of holy hockey grails on a pedestal upside down.

Epic, epic fail. Even Draper's kid had the good sense to poop in the thing right-side up.

This was the proverbial slow-motion car crash; like on "The Price is Right," when a contestant is about to put the $199 price tag on the tube of toothpaste and the crowd simultaneously shrieks "NO! NO!"

Video below, email subscribers click through for the humanity.  Make sure you do the education session with the next band you book.  No sense in getting fired because the boys from Liverpool don't know which way to stand your product up...

Next year, do what any sensible Detroit citizen would do and bring on Kid Rock...

Comments

[jane]

Grow up, and get over it already. The Stanley Cup is not the cup of Christ.

[Kevin Grossman]

To some it is the holy grail. Not me, but to some. No matter what though, I'd have Def Leppard play at our HRmarketer.com marketing/PR party 'cause the boys know how to still market themselves and rock! "Do you wanna get rocked?" Yep.

[Mary]

Jane, I think the point is that if you're going to let your product/logo be associated with anyone outside your company (especially if he/she/it generates media coverage), it greatly helps your marketing efforts when said person has the vaguest idea what you stand for (or at least which way your logo points). Great post.

[Bugsyph1]

prehistoric arena rockers trying to appeal to the "new, younger" NHL. Why don't they jst hang the cross upside down at your next church picnic, or thank the Burger King at a Hamburger University commencement. At least their makeup was impeccable albeit a bit heavy on the eyeliner. 80s has-beens with no respect for a venerable brand icon = disaster. The NHL should have booked Rush. At least they're still pumping out new and relevant music.