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Here at Kersh Media Towers, the news has been all about cows. To be precise we’ve been amazed at how news travels round the World in just a few hours. Let me explain.
We’ve recently been asked to help publicise a Kent theatre company’s open air Shakespeare summer tour. “How are rehearsals going”? I asked the Director one day.
“Fine” he replied, “Because of the hot weather, we’ve been rehearsing outdoors on a farm. We even have an audience” he added; “A herd of 170 cows”.
“You’ve been performing The Merry Wives of Windsor to a herd of cows”? I asked.
“Yes” replied the Director, “They love it. The farmer says the milk yield goes up when we rehearse”.
That sounded like a news story to me (albeit a rather bizarre one) so the next day we put together a press release and invited the media to the farm near Maidstone to see a rehearsal for themselves.
The story, plus interviews with the farmer (who recorded a 4 percent increase in milk) duly appeared in local papers TV and radio. Then the fun started.
We got calls from the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail and other nationals.
The story appeared on a number of websites and was picked up by news agencies and circulated around the World.
It was published in papers and magazines in Germany, Australia, Russia, India and many other countries.
“Les vaches donnent plus de lait quand on leur lit du Shakespeare” reported French television. “Las vacas aprecian a Shakespeare” explained a Spanish newspaper, “Shakespeare fa venire il latte alle mucche” said Italian radio.
The story appeared on Radio 4 and dozens of online blogs. The story was on Twitter and numerous websites, it was discussed on breakfast radio in Washington and California. TV in Canada asked if they could come and film it. A rather unusual website called “Hooray for Trousers” even wrote a haiku about it. Here it is;
Bard’s bovine bonus
Such stuff as creams are made of?
Alas, poor yoghurt.
The most memorable part for me however was sitting in the garden of a pub looking at Google on my iPhone and watching the story spread in real time, minute by minute across the World.
I was left wondering if the story, transmitted by a TV news satellite and beamed out into space, might one day alight on the antennae of a passing alien space ship. I wonder what they’ll make of it.
Back in Kent, the theatre group have been performing at Deal and many other locations around the county. If you fancy going to see them you can find a list of their performances and dates at http://www.changeling-theatre.com Tell them a cow sent you.
Graham Majin is Head of Video Marketing at Kent video production agency http://www.kershmedia.co.uk and http://www.kwikvid.com
