Walk The Line

Entrepreneur,  April, 2001  by Michelle Prather

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Was your first instinct to roll your eyes--shake your head, maybe? Rozner, 32, admits she was hesitant last September to go ahead with the idea, which was suggested by a company outsider, for fear of that very reaction. Luckily, the only negative feedback she received was from people who didn't like Lieberman. No one in the Jewish community took offense to the yarmulkes, which, according to Rozner, were meant to celebrate cultural diversity and the fact that a Jewish person was on a presidential ticket. Besides, if all the cool kids in Jewish day schools are sporting yarmulkes with Rugrats and Sesame Street characters, what's wrong with a $15 star-spangled, white leather skullcap with "Lieberman 2000" emblazoned on the side?

In explaining her ultimate decision to go to market with the yarmulkes, Rozner quips, "Someone was going to do it--it might as well have been me!" But in all seriousness: "You just have to draw the line," she says. "You don't want to be offensive or turn anyone off. But everything's going to turn someone off. You could open a restaurant, and if someone doesn't like seafood, it's going to turn them off."

New York City publicist Paul Lerner agrees there's a definite line between what society deems acceptable and what it thinks is questionable. If a company makes unpopular PR decisions, it might get press and increased sales--but it could also leave a bad taste in the mouths of many. Such was the fate of Annapolis, Maryland, software firm Risk Watch, which produces software that analyzes security measures in buildings. It sent out a press release trying to increase awareness of school security the night of the Columbine tragedy in April 1999. "I think people's gut reactions are more negative than positive, even when [companies are] tying to help," says Lerner. "Especially if someone's profiting."

The difference between how society views something like the Risk Watch situation and the sudden success experienced by ECSA and Zipple, according to Lerner, is that the latter two are somewhat lighthearted. "I don't think [the Election 2000 business] is so bad," he says. However, in the case of Columbine, says Lerner, people died, and that makes any appearance of opportunism--real or imagined--a danger for companies like Risk Watch.

While the Diamonds benefited from a nation in political upheaval for a while, John says that what Marcia told Katie Couric on The Today Shows sums up their thoughts on the matter. "She said that the last thing we want to do is trivialize the electoral college process or even the election of the presidency," says John. "We don't want to see ourselves benefit from it if it means the turmoil of the country continues. We don't want to be accused of profiteering on situation, and hopefully, we're not."

Y ASK WHY?

Hanna Irwin, 46, and Albert Will, 45, saw the dollar signs it kitsch years before the ball touched down on the first day of 2000. They originally intended to trademark "Y2K" so clients of their Indianapolis marketing and consulting firm, Looking Glass Partners LLC, could buy the right to the catch phrase and exploit it based on their needs. In early 1997, Irwin and Will went ahead and trademarked "Y2K" as well as the phrases "Millennium Bug," "Uh 00H!" and "Sorry, it's a non-negotiable deadline" to name a few, but none of Looking Glass Partners' clients were biting.