Here’s the longitude/latitude of PR now:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/media/29zappos.html?_r=1&ref=technology
Zappos:
Naked runner guy viral video marketing PR social media campaign.
(1) Convergence of PR/marketing and social media.
(2) Demotic (downward and out-there) cultural styling:
(a) sexual
(b) snarky
(c) adolescent
(d) slapstick (Monty Python/Bennie Hill)
Zappos succeeds in hitting the sweet spot of pop culture at this cultural turning moment.
In the postwar fedora-wearing, bullet bra era depicted in “Mad Men”,US cultural style was middle brow — the creative fallout of Princeton-educated Eng lit types who ruled Madison Avenue.
In the Milennial Internet era observed online, US cultural style has gone Zappos: low brow emo, snarky, sexy, “Animal House.” The web comes across as the collective expression of adolescent Id & ego mashed up with engineer geekiness.
Soundtrack: Jonathan Coulton.
Gathering the Light 