Publicity Stunt or….

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By Dwain Duxson - An Ag Enthusiast

Publicity Stunt or…. - The story about Harry Bourchier buying 12 PTO Massey Headers and 12 Chamberlain Tractors and driving them through Horsham in convoy is folklore. Whether it was 12 or 9 or just the Tractors, it doesn't really matter too much. It was something of significance, and to this day, it is spoken about a lot.

You just wonder at the time if it was a publicity stunt or just Harry's way of getting all the gear from A to B. It could have been an organised parade, with Harry taking 12 (or 9, or however many) of his people to Horsham and saying to Johnny, you go out the front, I'll go at the back and make sure you go down all these streets so we make a scene. If it worked that way, then the stunt was successful, and if it didn't create a status, it added to one.

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Like when Legendary Grazier Tom Brinkworth drove the 18,000 Cattle he purchased out of Central West Queensland to Hay in the Riverina, some 2000 kilometres away. Was it a publicity stunt, or was Brinkworth just deciding that it was the best way to get the Cattle from A to B? Like Harry, we'll never know Brinkworth's motive for doing it that way. It's folklore, too.

I remember when the Dollar Shave Club put a catchy video out that went viral (watch it here) promoting a new start-up razor business to compete with Gillette, the category leader. The video got the ball rolling, and they started to eat into Gillette's market share. So much so that Gillett bought Dollar Shave Club for USD 1 billion dollars. The original video was a publicity stunt like no other. Have you done some kind of publicity stunt to promote something or yourself? Or have you heard of some kind of stunt that is folklore? Reply to dwaind@farmtender.com.au

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