Furore over Michael Jackson memorial tickets
Wednesday 08 July 2009 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter
Even in death, Michael Jackson is dominating the limelight. As the clear-up gets underway at Los Angeles' Staples Centre after the massive memorial service yesterday, fans are still hotly debating the rights and wrongs of events since his death, including sales of tickets to the star-studded event on eBay and Craigslist.
Passes to the memorial service were assigned in an on-line lottery and an estimated 1.6 million people applied for tickets. The memorial's organisers – AEG Live, owners of the Staples Centre and had underwriters of Jackson's much-hyped London concerts – distributed 8,750 pairs of free tickets via e-mail. Some lucky winners were obviously not die-hard MJ fans and decided to cash in on their good fortune by listing the passes on the auction sites. Some were offered for absurd sums but the touts' efforts were soon thwarted by eBay who pulled the ads, saying "We believe it is inappropriate to allow the sale of tickets for the Michael Jackson memorial service."
Some outraged fans had already administered their own justice in defence of the King of Pop by bidding tickets up to crazy figures such as $100m (£62m). Similar adverts on rival Craigslist were soon pinpointed by users for deletion and spokesperson Susan MacTavish Best was quoted as saying, "Users very quickly flag off ads that are inappropriate, look fishy, or are miscategorised, and that is what we are seeing happening with regards to Michael Jackson. This is an example of community response in action."
Jackson family spokesman, Ken Sunshine, criticised those who had sought to make money out of the event. "This is a memorial," he said. "Words can't describe how horrifying it is that people are ostensibly trying to do that. It's beneath contempt."
The memorial's all-star line up – including Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Mariah Carey, Usher and Brooke Shields – guaranteed public interest and the event was predicted to be a challenge for the media, with scores of TV stations wanting to stream it live over the airwaves and the web. Facebook, the world's biggest social networking site teamed up with CNN, while rival MySpace took its feed from AEG Live. The service was broadcast on five US television networks and the BBC streamed it live in the UK. Fears that the Internet – which had undoubtedly slowed with the thirst for details when Michael Jackson's death was announced – would struggle with the traffic were not realised. The events since the music icon's passing have certainly kept the web pundits active. Remarkably, at one point Google News was inundated by queries to the point that the organisation genuinely believed it was under attack!
By the time the lottery winners had taken their seats in the Staples Centre, Jackson's official Facebook fan page had almost 7 million members, compared to just 80,000 before he passed away. Jackson has become the most popular public figure on the site, ahead of Barack Obama. And Jackson-related clips are continuing to dominate YouTube's 'most popular'.
On day of the memorial service, social media guide Mashable reported that the memorial dominated the conversation on microblogging site Twitter. Mashable reported, "In fact, at the moment, Jackson-related tweets occupy all 10 of Twitter's top trending topics. Aside from 'MJ Memorial' and the '#michaeljackson' hashtag, users are discussing the activities of the proceedings en masse, with various performers, presenters, and the venue (Staples Center) also occupying the top slots." In the hours leading up to the ceremony, Twitter – where many had first heard the news of Jackson's demise – began to slow ominously.
And the service itself? Many thought that it was a poignant and fitting tribute for an entertainment phenomenon, but for some it was a saccharine affair. Certainly there was at least a glimpse of Michael the man, to complement Jackson the superstar.
If you felt uncomfortable seeing his 11-year-old daughter, Paris-Michael, saying, "Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. And I just wanted to say I love him — so much," and then dissolving into tears in front of the overwhelmingly massive crowd, you were not alone. Former South African President, Nelson Mandela, offered words of condolence and love for Jackson in a statement read by Smokey Robinson. Lionel Richie, Jackson's collaborator on the anthem 'We are the world', sang a gospel classic. And his brother Jermaine's version of 'Smile', which Michael had often used as a metaphor for his own tragic saga, was a fitting epitaph.
But the question remaining is this: will we ever be able to remember his musical talent without also conjuring up images of Bubbles the chimp, the weird oxygen chamber, child abuse lawsuits, inexplicable facial surgery and the dangling of his infant son over the balcony of a German hotel? Try as we might, it's not going to be easy…but maybe the history books will be kinder to MJ in the fullness of time.
Read also
Google adds brands to search results
Saturday 01 May 2010
Google highlights similar pages
Saturday 01 May 2010
Google shows that size does matter
Monday 21 December 2009