Promo Editor Gets into the Act

All the attention in these pages devoted to guerrilla marketing prompted Promo editor-in-chief Larry Jaffee to pull off a stunt of his own.

For the past 16 years he has published the Walford Gazette, a quarterly tabloid dedicated to a British television series called “EastEnders.” Although widely popular in its native U.K., the series is no more than a cult favorite on this side of the Atlantic, currently broadcast via public TV in 10 cities and a Dish network subscription.

BBC America honcho Garth Ancier last summer got Jaffee's knickers in a twist when he told an AP reporter that “EastEnders” is “peculiar to Britain … The joke around the office, the lesson from that show, is ‘Life is miserable and then you die.’” Jaffee thought to himself, “As the Cockneys say, “Them's fightin' words!”

He recently dropped 5,000 postcards in several waves to long-expired Walford Gazette subscribers, urging fans to send teabags (get the symbolism?) straight to Ancier's office (one wanted to know if it should be “a used Tetley”), and subscription requests to Jaffee.

Within two weeks the campaign broke even as dozens of people — many of whom hadn't seen the newspaper (www.wgazette.com) in years — started sending Jaffee checks for $25 (one year) or $42 (two years), and teabags to BBC America, which had dropped the show in 2003.

Jaffee's no stranger to raising a ruckus. In January 2005 he led a grassroots effort that raised $35,000 in a month, reversing a planned cancellation by his local PBS affiliate. The New York Times and other press picked up the story.

He's just getting started, mate!