Sep
19
We introduced Jose, the FedEx furniture guy, to the blogging world after we discovered his fedexfurniture site. The site recently received a redesign check it out here: http://furniture.weblogswork.com. On a side note, 20/20 just recorded a piece in his apartment on the 15th. Literally, this story will never die…
Aug
24
We first reblogged a MAKE: story about a guy named Jose who built an apartment full of furniture out of FedEx boxes. You can follow the thread here. I figured the story was basically over (it has lasted for more than a month), until my wife and I were watching MSNBC last night and saw Jose on a program called Countdown(that is my son in the background asking what I was doing). The story about the "FedEx Furniture Guy" lasted more than two minutes and included a live interview. Next, this morning Jose was on the Today show for more than three minutes. I understand he will be on Good Morning America later this week and Inside Edition on Friday. I assume the next step is the late night shows: Leno, Letterman and Kimmel? Will it be over then? Or maybe there will be a national book tour, a movie of the week, or maybe a SIM video game?
Aug
20
ABC News recently visited Jose, the FedEx Furniture Guy, for a spot to be aired on Good Morning America next week. The ‘Cribs’ style segment will feature the new ‘FedEx Furniture Lifestyle’ that Jose has made so popular.
The Good Morning American segment is only one of several television appearances Jose has made in the past few weeks. He has made the rounds of all the major (and minor) news outlets including CNN, CNBC, NBC, CBS, and ABC. In total, over one hour of national programming in the past month has been dedicated to his furnishings and his plight and fight to keep his website up. Jose was contacted by Riverston Publishing about the possibility of writing a book about his adventure and a museum has offered to diplay his ‘art’ in their collection. Jose has been a busy boy!
Web traffic has been significant. Over 500,000 unique Internet users who have visited his site and/or blog. Thousands of people have emailed him, and hundreds have left comments on his website. Icerocket indicates that over 597 bloggers have written about FedEx Furniture. Some of the bloggers are mad angry (actually more surprised than angry) that he has received so much attention, others suspect that we made him up and many more thought the stunt was funny. Interestingly, many folks in the PR business want the entire story to go away. Don’t worry, it will. But clearly FedEx could have been on the good side of this 15 60 minutes of fame – instead of playing the villian…
Aug
19
More from Jose Avila. We asked him 3Q’s:
Q: What did you hope to gain by putting up the site?
The reason I wanted to put up the site was to go out to the world and say "It’s OK to be ghetto! When you are in a bind, and feeling down, you can be creative." I figured that maybe at least one person would see the site that was in a bad situation, get a laugh out of it, and think to them selves "Hey at least I’m not that guy!"
Q: Do you think you would have reacted differently had you been approached differently?
I was only approached by FedEx’s legal department. Had I been approached differently I probably would have reacted differently. Had they asked me to change the domain name, change the colors etc. I would have more than considered changing those things. When this whole thing started I did not have legal representation, and had I been approached in a less threating manner, and not told that there were no other options, would not have even started looking for a lawyer.
Q: Where does this go from here? Why don’t you just take the site down and avoid the hassle?
It goes where it goes… At what point do you stand down and give up your rights? When do you let in. Ever since my lawyers have advised me that there is nothing legally wrong with what I am doing, I feel that if i take down the site and avoid the hassle, it will give the message "It’s OK to push around the guy smaller than you". I don’t believe that it is OK to do that, just as it is was not OK to bully around the kids in lower grades in school.
Aug
18
Jeremy Pepper puts on his reporter hat and gets everyone’s side of the story in this post. He gets Sandra Munoz, of FedEx corporate communications, to talk about their approach to the story:
We have not officially responded because no one has really contacted the media department for a response. Those people that have called, like a TV station, we do respond to. We did miss the Wired.com request.
Right now, it’s about media coverage. Right now, maybe this has run its course with the traditional media, it was the flavor of the week. That’s what it is about with public relations – you look at the situation, weigh the damage, and make decisions. You do make your decisions on what you do and do not respond to. And, that’s not just FedEx, but that’s likely all corporations that are weighing the upside and downside in responding to media and citizen media. You can’t always respond to everything, because of timing. Wired.com is a perfect example – the request came in over email, and got lost in the shuffle.
I believe that the first contact with Jose Avila – the official contact – was through the attorney. If we go online and see a company using the FedEx name, it goes to legal. That’s not unusual. It’s a legal issue.
We’re just asking him to respect our rights. Thousands of our employees have built the company to what it is today. All we’re asking him to do is respect our name and materials, and stop using them for his Website and his endeavors. That’s all it comes down to."
Jeremy also includes a long IM transcript with Jose Avila. Check it out.
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