LONDON KIDNAPING HOAX DRAWS ATTENTION TO AIWA RELAUNCH
A new terror is abroad in the land, if Aiwa Europe and Internet manifestos can be believed. The threat is alleged to come from an anti-digital music pressure group called the Vinylists (www.vinylism.org), who disrupted a Feb. 4 Aiwa news conference in Tokyo and did the same in London yesterday, kidnaping an Aiwa executive, the company said. But marketers of digital audio products can rest easy now, as each reported incident was a hoax perpetrated in cyberspace to draw attention to the Sony-owned Aiwa brand’s relaunch with PC-based digital audio portables.
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The plot began unfolding Mon., when Aiwa Mktg.-Europe invited journalists to log-on to a live Feb. 19 news conference to be conducted online-only from London’s Soho Theater. The invitation assured guests that heightened security would be in place to prevent another in “a spate of disturbances” by the Vinylists at recent product launches by Aiwa and other electronics companies.
At a link provided by Aiwa to the Vinylist Web-site, the group described itself as “a pressure group set up to put an end to the corrupting influence computers are having on music. This rot must be stopped!” It said the mission of Vinylism “is to do anything within our power to keep music organic. This means opposing all digital formats that rob the soul from our sounds. Tape, CD, MP3, WAV, AIFF and the machines that play them are our targets. Our weapons are disruption, interference, industry spies and real music.”
Although the group contended its methods were nonviolent, a news report on the site related how a Vinylist had been arrested in Tokyo after disrupting an Aiwa news conference by handcuffing himself to a company executive identified as senior product designer Akira Enoki. “This is the third electronics conference that the Vinylists have sabotaged since Christmas,” the Web report said, adding that the assailant, identified as Spirit Thompson, was “not considered a threat, was bailed later that afternoon and will be called before the court in mid February to answer charges of disturbing the peace.”
Our query to Aiwa about how the Thurs. London event had gone elicited the following e-mail reply. “Dear Journalist: Aiwa Marketing of Europe would like to sincerely apologize for the deplorable interruptions to our press event earlier today.” It went on to describe how “Vinylists” had kidnaped an Aiwa representative identified as Hans Brose, but that “London’s Metropolitan Police acted swiftly to ensure Mr Brose’s safety and have arrested Eric Van de Belt, the self-styled leader of the protestors. Dramatic footage of the discovery of Mr Brose at the Vinylist hide-out by an under cover news team can be seen at http://www.eu.aiwa.com/live.”
Shortly after the Aiwa message, a news report arrived by e- mail describing the event, filed at 3:02 p.m. London time by a news service identified as “Ananotha.” That report too directed readers to footage of the kidnap victim allegedly held hostage at the Vinylists hide-out.
In each case, it appeared obvious from the “footage” that the kidnaping never took place but was a publicity stunt. The footage shows a group of youths in offbeat attire discovering, admiring then partying to Aiwa’s digital audio portables, which download content from PCs through a USB connector. Confirmation of a hoax wasn’t available from Aiwa in Europe at our deadline. It also wasn’t known if Sony in the U.S. planned similar promotions from its repositioned Aiwa brand.