Cash4Gold

Oh, I like this, yes, I really do like this. Cash4Gold is known for their very canny eye for a bit of press release fun and games but this is just wonderful (and I speak as someone who has prepared press releases and press stunts for a living before now). Click through that link to see the full glory but here's the background and the story.

Cash4Gold is a precious metals refining company: you send in something made out of valuable metals and they'll process it back into the raw material. This then gets used to make the next generation of items made of precious metals of course. (In fact, it's said that 99% of all the gold ever dug up is still in use and just keeps getting recycled). Now, no, they don't make you wait while it is proecssed. They have expert appraisers who can work out the value of the metals after reprocessing and that's what they'll make you a cash offer on. Excellent, so what's the angle here then?

Well, what they did was issue a press release stating that the value of the Larry O'Brien trophy (the one for the NBA) was about $3,500 just in case the Lakers wanted to melt it down to pay for the celebrations of their winning it. They also pointed out that the Stanley Cup was worth about twice that much.

Nope, you gotta admit it, that's a great way to get some free advertising out of the newspapers. Well done that man who thought it up.