An arena for both fields

PR has caught up with marketing over recent years – if only top managers were to realise it

 
The setting is a kitchen, somewhere in Finland. The camera pans the room, showing a series of sleek, modern appliances. In front of them, a lanky young boy with straight hair is cutting up for the camera – making faces, throwing his cap in the air, and even doing a little dance. Another boy joins him. “Mom will kill me if I don’t throw this orange juice in the trash,” the second boy says. “Do you think anyone is looking at the kitchen or is everyone just looking at the people in here?” asks someone off camera. “Millions of people are watching me! I’m on TV!” yells the first boy, before blocking the camera with his baseball cap. But this isn’t exactly TV. This is Kitchen Stage, a “reality show” sponsored by Stockholm-based AB ElectroLux, which ran for five months earlier this year on the internet. More than 100,000 viewers logged on to follow the daily living habits of the two families – one in Finland and the other in Italy – who agreed to have webcams installed in their kitchens. The appliances that provided the backdrop for the show were, of course, from ElectroLux.