Monday, July 19, 2010

Decisions, decisions...

This mooch-in-the-making found herself downright flustered when trying to choose which product to procure first. A quick survey of my friends was no help. Their pie-in-the-sky suggestions ("A MacBook Air!" "Get an iPad!") almost exclusively targeted the least press-hungry company in existence. I had to start smaller, but where?

A quick trip to Sephora answered my question. After spending somewhere in the ballpark of $10,000 on a tube of concealer and bottle of hair conditioner, I realized that cosmetics would make the perfect project-launching product, for the following reasons:

1. Cosmetics are overpriced enough for me not to feel too guilty about essentially scamming them for free.

2. They're small and easy to ship. (Years ago, a newspaper assignment required me to have a bunch of kids test out a life-size animatronic pony, that holiday season's hottest toy. Getting the PR company to ship that stinking pony involved military-level strategy; worse, it was such a popular, limited item that I had to send the damn thing back, too. Never mind that the moving, snorting beast made all the kids cry and a friend's dog to bark hysterically during the entire photo shoot.)

With a clear target in sight, my next step was to invent a legit-sounding publication. I can't tell you what I came up with, but my imaginary magazine is sort of along the lines of "Lucky," and I (again, my pseudonym must stay under wraps) am "the new beauty/style editor." Or so I wrote in a slew of introductory emails to PR firms specializing in beauty, fashion and lifestyle clients.

With said correspondences just fired off, I'll be playing the waiting game for the next couple of days...and plotting my next line of attack.

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