One of my first jobs in the movie business was working as a coordinator on the movie "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer". The film starred Kristy Swanson as Buffy, student by day and vampire killer by night. Almost 20 years later, Kristy and I have kept in touch and remain friends.
I noticed on my calendar that Kristy turns 40 tomorrow. Cool. As I run GiftDay, a company that specializes in meaningful and thoughtful gifts built around dates, I knew that I'd need to find something special for Kristy.
Apple formalized a marketing arrangement with GiftDay yesterday so I thought it would be appropriate to jump over to iTunes to find something meaningful for Kristy. With more than 10 million songs available worldwide, it'd be impossible not to find an item date-relevant to Kristy. And in Kristy's case, December 19, 1969 would be the date-relevant date - the day she was born!
I immediately got to work...
With the help of Wikipedia, I discovered within a few minutes of searching that the very first Jackson 5 album, "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5", was released the same day Kristy was born. Perfect! I know Kristy likes Michael Jackson so this gift purchase is a no-brainer.
Later tonight, I'll buy and download the Jackson 5 album and burn it to CD, print some personalized cover art on it, write a provenance and then drop it off to Kristy on Saturday. (Although by the time she gets the gift it will no longer be a surprise since I'll likely post a link to this blog on a social networking site... or two.)
Hi Kristy, Happy Birthday. Sorry to go public on you but I gotta shamelessly promote GiftDay! (We actually just had our own company birthday/anniversary last week.) What are friends for, right? Sorry to see you leave the hood. How's the new digs? Talk soon. Enjoy your birthday weekend!
That was kind of lame I realize but when you're shamelessly promoting... you've gotta be shameless.
So back to The Jackson 5 album. According to Wikipedia, the album was called "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5". Diana Ross? Huh? Wikipedia though goes on to heed my raised eyebrows by telling me that Ross was nothing more than a marketing gimmick. She neither discovered the band nor actively sought to promote the band without some ulterior gain. Motown apparently asked Ross to help them sell Jackson 5 records. The marketing plan worked. The album was a huge success...
According to Apple's review of the album: "For all intents and purposes, this dozen-song disc introduced the world to the sibling talents of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and most significantly of all, a prepubescent powerhouse named Michael Jackson."
How perfect that Kristy and the Jackson 5 were introduced to the world on the same day!
The gift will sell itself. Clearly. While it didn't take me long to hunt down this gift, I know it will mean something to Kristy. She's someone who've I known for a long time and who will appreciate being thought about and fussed over. She deserves a meaningful, thoughtful gift. Everyone, in fact, deserves to be treated like a movie star on their birthday. Even movie stars.
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