Krug Champagne summoned the wrath of many Burners (almost one year later!) after they staged a crass publicity stunt involving "society bloggers" at Burning Man 2011. As many of you know, Burning Man is a non-commercial event where all media must be approved via an understandably strict committee. The fancy champagne house, however, didn't bother to go though the proper channels. Which, rude. Even worse? Krug left behind a mess. The Burning Blog has all the details:
"...Krug, a centuries-old luxury champagne house, and its publicity machine, staged and hosted an elaborate dinner party at the trash fence on Friday night of the 2011 event. Pre-event, Krug’s PR agency pitched members of the media to photograph and report on the staged dinner for publications such as Town & Country and W Magazine. They invited society bloggers to the 'exclusive' champagne dinner with the expectation of getting even more coverage, and pro photogs to shoot it. And it worked. The organizers of this event brought paid photographers to the playa and had them falsely register with Media Mecca saying they were there to cover general art and playa happenings, instead of telling the truth; that they were there to act as representatives of Krug - obviously knowing that if they had told the truth, they would not have been allowed to photograph. They then pulled the dinner off entirely under the radar, had the dinner covered both by their captive media and the general media, and managed to get product placement articles published."
As Laughing Squid reported, the bubbly publicity party was picked up by Notes on a Party and Taryn Cox The Wife. It was also featured in Town & Country and W Magazine, though both publications have since yanked the piece. And the Burner community? Well, they're livid and have taken to Facebook and Twitter to tell the luxe champagne house exactly how they feel. Mon dieu!
No word yet as to why this has incurred such anger a year later.
