ABSTRACT

As the world reeled from the unprecedented September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, another event grabbed headlines and the attention of an American public that, while no stranger to domestic terrorism, had been introduced to foreign attacks on home soil only four months earlier. Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, was kidnapped by an al Qaeda affiliated organization, and, one month later, a video of his decapitation was aired all over the world. Both the kidnapping and the beheading were viewed as a propaganda opportunity by the Violent Extremist Organization (VEO) (KrauseJackson and Capaccio 2011). Most accounts suggested that the long-term effect of the release of the video was successful in drawing the attention of people around the globe (Lentini and Bakashmar 2007). Viewed objectively, such tactics to promote the brand of global jihad are not that different from more traditional branding efforts employed by much-loved consumer brands. An organization had used its knowledge of its target market to stage a promotion that would resonate with them, filmed the event, released the video, and then allowed its own customers to spread the message virally. As is often the case with the best viral marketing, the promotion engaged an audience far larger than originally planned due to the surprising nature of the content. ConsiderWestJet Airlines surprising its passengers with Christmas gifts in December 2013.WestJet recorded the Christmas wishes of 250 passengers via a virtual Santa as they boarded a four-hour cross-country flight. Then, with the help of 150 staff members, they surprised those passengers upon their arrival with their requested gifts on the baggage carousel in place of their suitcases (Moran 2013), leading many of the nearly 36 million viewers who watched the video on WestJet’s YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/westjetpromo) to ask whether this was a Christmas miracle or a sickly sweet public relations stunt.