Corporation U2 Play$ the Game

The NY Times's David Carr looks at U2 as a "multimillion-dollar, multinational media company" in order to understand their longevity as a chart topping musical act. He organizes his discussion via a series of tips that are best when they consider U2's embrace of new technologies and approaches to marketing, like developing a website that includes a subscription option for unique content and early access to tickets or collaborating with Apple on a U2 branded iPod preloaded with an extensive catalog of U2's music.

Carr's take on U2's political activities is a bit mixed. It's true that Bono can mobilize audiences to text message a website and make them "think they are part of something bigger", which seems like a no-brainer in a stadium concert setting featuring rock anthems and tens of thousands of rabid fans with mobile devices. But describing Bono's interactions with conservative politicians, in which he uses star power and what is apparently a reasonable depth of knowledge to engage them in conversation in exchange for photo opps, as an example of embracing politicans rather than politics seems rather bizarre. Let's just say that intelligently playing the media game to promote one's agenda is a necessary prerequisite for a musician that desires to top the charts and have a generally polite impact on career politicians.

This letter to a San Jose Mercury News writer that asks if Bono puts his money where his media is raises some interesting questions and seems more politically astute, even if it also seems motivated by annoyance at US funds going to help folks in Africa. But then, I was talking to an intelligent woman just the other day whose strongest argument for the death penalty was that she thought it was cheaper than life imprisonment. I guess deciding who lives, who dies and who politicians will talk to is still all about the Benjamins!