Does Jon Stewart Take Requests?

The "Brawl Street" smack-down heard around the world, seen here at Hulu, inspires me to ask if Jon could please smack RCA for its squandering of Clay Aiken's talent.

As I've mentioned repeatedly, Time magazine noted way back in 2003 that RCA just didn't "get" Clay Aiken, but that Clay instinctively knew what his audience wanted from him. Whatever Clay thinks of the individual employees he worked with at RCA, and he has said kind and collegial things about them at his official fan club, RCA as a corporation squandered him (their resource) and his audience (their customers).

The problem was that RCA was a "cool" shop, and they were handed a "warm" product. RCA was rock 'n' roll; Clay was an entertainer. The closest marketing paradigm they could come up with for him was Barry Manilow, a warm artist but not a product they could sell to customers for cool.

Hell, even I know how to make "warm" go hot. You just blow a bit on the embers and step back. That's all Clay needed.

But if that wasn't simple enough, and RCA still demanded cool, even Clay knew how to do that for them if they'd let him.

How do you turn "warm" into "cool"? Ask Harley-Davidson. How do you sell a teddy bear in a Harley shop? You put a leather jacket on it.


"Cool Luke" photo by HDTalking

Clay knew that. That's what he did for the 2005 "Jukebox Tour," when he was between albums. He made a great show out of nothing.


photo by "Tasapio"

Now that Clay is free of the RCA chains of incompetence, there probably isn't really much of a battle to fight right now. They say living well is the best revenge, and I have a feeling Clay will be living very well for many years to come.

Thanks anyway, Jon. You've got bigger fish to fry.

Love,
hosaa
feeling warm