How Not To Burn: Commodifying Burning Man

Some people just don’t get it. It is sad and upsetting for Burners when brands ignore our cultural expectations and try to pull marketing stunts on the playa, and worse yet when they pretend it’s not happening.  Due to diligent staffers and volunteers, we usually find and stop these marketing stunts, and protect our community, before the commodifiers make it into the city.

The scene. Photo by Peg Ortner.

But some slip through.  This year, one company tried literally to bottle up the Burning Man experience, and turned it into a product shoot. They amplified their marketing efforts by co-opting some major publications to publish articles with photographs that violate our core principles and media policies.  They knew what they were doing, but they did it anyway.   We are sharing this story in explicit detail in order to keep the community alert to these transgressions, and to deter others who are eyeing our event as a place to launch or promote products or companies.  Let us be clear: this is not the kind of marketing activity that raises brand value. Our culture just won’t tolerate it, and it often backfires. (Burners, remember this brand, and perhaps you’ll want to weigh this as you choose your next bottle of champagne.)

In this instance, Krug, a centuries-old luxury champagne house, and its publicity machine, staged and hosted an elaborate dinner party at the trash fence on Friday night of the 2011 event. Pre-event, Krug’s PR agency pitched members of the media to photograph and report on the staged dinner for publications such as Town & Country and W Magazine. They invited society bloggers to the “exclusive” champagne dinner with the expectation of getting even more coverage, and pro photogs to shoot it. And it worked.  The organizers of this event brought paid photographers to the playa and had them falsely register with Media Mecca saying they were there to cover general art and playa happenings, instead of telling the truth;  that they were there to act as representatives of Krug – obviously knowing that if they had told the truth, they would not have been allowed to photograph.   They then pulled the dinner off entirely under the radar, had the dinner covered both by their captive media and the general media, and managed to get product placement articles published.

My friends and I came across the scene of the dinner on our art car, The Slug, en route to explore the deep playa late on Friday night. We slowed down to check out the remains of what appeared to have been a fantastically fancy party staged on a long constructed dinner table, lit by large hurricane lanterns. The stained tables had empty water bottles and other party residue strewn about.  And it was right along the trash fence. What a great place for such a dinner, we marveled. But was anyone going to clean it all up? Not a soul was around.  Krug just took their commodified photos and left the mess for us.

After Burning Man, a few attendees at the dinner came forward to share their experience with this event. They told BMHQ that the organizers lured them there by saying that it was a “birthday party,” and that it took them until about halfway through the dinner to realize that they were being photographed drinking the Krug for fashion magazines.  Once they caught on, they left in disgust.

We later found evidence of who was behind this, and why.  First, the brand boasted of the event right on their Facebook page.

 

Ew. Just ew.

For the brand, this was just another fancy promotional dinner held in an exotic place. They provided cases of the champagne. Their representatives hired caterers and executed a bi-coastal PR effort to promote and obtain coverage for the event. Town & Country magazine took the bait and published a photo spread replete with product placement in the print version.

It’s hard to measure what’s worst about this situation, as the many clear boundaries that were blatantly ignored makes a pretty long list. Ironically, the reporter for Town & Country even cited the 10 Principles in his story – but if you know the 10 Principles, it’s obvious that Krug and its marketing minions cared not one iota about our values:

–       Radical inclusion–  perhaps some curious passersby were invited to join the dinner, but from the looks of it this was a VIP party held for people who are on the Krug VIP email list and participants of Zoo Camp who hosted the catering company and the “Krug Art Bus” (Yuck! A branded art car?)

–       Decommodification– It is made clear to the media that registers with Media Mecca, and indeed to every participant, that “commercial sponsorships, transactions or advertising” are not welcome at Burning Man. The photographer and writer sent from Town & Country obviously knew this, which explains why they failed to mention upon registration that they had been pitched by a PR agency to cover this blatantly commercial dinner event.

–       Leaving No Trace– the original ePlaya thread on this topic was posted by a random participant wondering who was behind the big “party mess on deep playa” – the same messy scene I saw that night. That the scene of the crime was left unattended and messy shows further disregard for this practical main principle on the playa.

–       Radical Self-Reliance– These people were provided with animal costumes, shuttled from Zoo Camp in the “Krug Art Bus” to the dinner, fed, offered expensive branded champagnes and shuttled back. It’s notable that there were several Ranger interactions regarding noise complaints about this same vehicle.

Don’t get me wrong; this is not a strategic slam against “the 1%” coming out to party on the playa. In fact, it’s awesome that all 100% of us can come together at the Burn and live it up, side by side; an extreme level of beautiful decadence is constantly being created and shared at Burning Man, whether involving $150 dollar bottles of champagne or not. I support that. This isn’t a rant against an upper crust scene at the event – radical inclusion, and all.  The problem is that the Burning Man experience was co-opted by a luxury brand for marketing purposes.  And I think they deserve to be called out.

Krug, its marketing team and the PR agency they retained for this project treated Burning Man as a backdrop, throwing just another exclusive party for their brand loyalists who were personally invited to attend, in order to create marketing material commodifying Burning Man.

The attitude here is easily summed up by a direct quote from the brand director at Krug who oversaw the dinner. When interviewed by the The New York Times and asked about Burning Man, Krug’s Carl Heline says, “It’s not that different than Fashion Week.” If Burning Man is no different than Fashion Week, Carl, you’re doing it wrong.

Burning Man allows media members to publish photographs in the weeks around the event, so long as they are published only for editorial purposes.  Branded articles and product placement do not fit within that permission.  After the event, we found that W Magazine had published a photo essay of the dinner.  We approached W Magazine about this transgression, and it had the good sense to take their photo essay on the dinner down.  But not before a whole rash of fashion and foodie blogs picked up the story (now all links to it are dead). And this was the story that was retweeted by the catering company and Krug’s corporate Twitter accounts. C’mon:

Krug Champagne @KrugChampagneUS: Beautifully captured thnx2 @heartforaneye RT: @TarynCoxTheWifeThe dinner I attended at Burning Man! AMAZING!wmagazine.com/parties/2011/0…

Town & Country Magazine contacted us post-event for photo review and permission.  By that time, we had found out that this was not a real Burning Man event, but a product placement story, and we refused permission for Town & Country to publish any photographs from the event. Sadly, they sent the story to press anyway, very much in violation of the photographer’s agreement with Burning Man which prohibited any such publication.  Unfortunately, the timing was too short for us to file a lawsuit against them enjoining the publication.  That’s what BMHQ does to prevent this type of commodification.

So this tactic has made Burning Man even more alert.  Town & Country is no longer welcome at the event, for their part in this subterfuge, and for their violation of the user agreement signed by their photographer.   If Burning Man participants refuse to buy Krug champagne because of this, there will be an economic cost to them, and others who try the same shehanigans.  Thanks to Krug and its merry band of lotus-eaters, Burning Man will crack down harder on any branded cars or camps it sees.

And all of you are necessary to protect our event.  My call to action: If you see suspicious marketing activities like this going on at the event, subtle or not, every participant should feel empowered to contact a Black Rock Ranger or any organizer to report the activity for investigation. Media Mecca is also here to help follow up on these occurrences, and you can report it if you see it post-event via press@burningman.com . The organizers work hard to keep Burning Man from turning into another commercialized, sponsored event, and we’re grateful that most participants are willing to help keep eyes out for this unwanted activity.

 

Holding the line,

Evil Pippi
Evil Pippi, aka Candace Locklear, helped form the current Burning Man media team known on playa as Media Mecca in 1997 and remains a loyal participant.

 

 

About the author: Evil Pippi

Evil Pippi

Candace Locklear (aka Evil Pippi) helped form the Arts non-profit We Are From Dust (WAFD) with founder Yomi Ayeni, both former Media Mecca volunteers. WAFD is dedicating its time and resources to supporting BIPOC crews behind "Farmer the Rigger" and the Alebrijes art car by fundraising, volunteer coordination, promotion, and assisting with the build. Evil Pippi has been attending Burning Man on and off since 1996, and has remained deeply connected to the staff and various organizations within the Burning Man community. She has been known to perform as both a Santa and a Klown—in the dust and the default world.

357 Comments on “How Not To Burn: Commodifying Burning Man

  • Rick says:

    Wow. Disgusting. Something similar happened in 2010, when a man approached me and offered to take our camp to a sponsored vodka party. He said his boss bought his ticket, and got him to the Playa with dozens of cases of vodka. I told him how offensive and despicable it was to do something like this. He, shamefully, walked away and exclaimed that it was “our loss to miss out on free vodka.” I reminded him as he walked away that there were 6 bars in our vicinity that offer free booze. I wish I could remember the name of the vodka company. Bastards.

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  • suburbanite says:

    Sounds like someone at Zoo Camp wanted to put their camp costs on the corporate card…

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  • If I EVER see this kinda shit happening while im there Im setting the crap on fire. I don’t care. I will be on the playa for weeks removing the burn scars on my hands and knees. but this shit is not going to fly if i see it.

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  • Marisa says:

    It’s assholes like this that make people think something innocuous like a “Hot Topic” prank is real.

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  • Terry says:

    Boycott the scum — and make sure that everyone you know, burners and non-burners alike, know about this!

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  • Dani says:

    I will never ever, buy a bottle of Krug. Not even on sale. Ever.

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  • 666isMONEY says:

    I saw this out there and took a video — click my name, “666isMONEY” for the video, this blog does not allow HTML.

    Video is creative commons.

    I walked close by hoping to get invited, thought it was a wedding.

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  • Leslie says:

    Horrible! it’s been a few years since I’ve been to the playa but this really saddens my heart. Wish I had known about this story sooner cuz I bought some Krug a couple of months ago…never again.

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  • Blysse Burnerchic says:

    I saw this dinner being set up last year. I was out on a deep Playa art tour on Wednesday, on my bike, and the caterers had just begun setting up. They didn’t answer many questions, but said they were setting up for a dinner the following night. I remember thinking “Why is this not in the WWW guide?” I was doing something else the next night so didn’t make it back there. I thought it was certainly some BOrg bigwig event and, even though it occurred to us that came upon them there that this felt “different” than we normally see at Burning Man, we didn’t really question it. Now that I know, I will be far more inquisitive, even vigilant, and will be sure to report this stuff to the Rangers. It’s totally bogus that Krug did this. People say “Oh, Burning Man is too commercialized now.” They don’t realize how hard we’re working to keep that from being true.

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  • gitasanchez says:

    here’s a brilliant idea: start something new… burningman has outlived its principles and now its principles will have to become dogmatic to enforce where force wasn’t necessary… it has gone from a mystic experience to a religious one. and all religions have expectations. in so doing it has begun to lose its mysteriousness and has become predictable… here’s another principle to embrace: don’t become attached…

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  • spabettie says:

    atrocious and maddening – especially that they left everything there. good to remember as I purchase champagne – and @Rick if you or anyone else remembers the vodka company, I’d love to not partake of that brand as well.

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  • Trouble says:

    Wow! I was invited to this with a friend as we rode by zoo camp and turned it down as it seemed weird and conflicted with other things I was doing. The scantily clad, very beautiful girl said they “needed” other dressed-up, good looking people for their party. At the time I just thought it was a really superficial camp… now I realize what she was asking us to attend and so glad I didn’t go. Boo to Krug.
    They could have just brought a bunch of cases of champagne and handed it out to people as they rode by and would have thrilled lots of us with the fun of a bit of bubbly on the playa… I would have looked it up later to purchase for sure if it was done as a gifting… now never.

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  • freshied says:

    This is disgusting. I remember seeing this a couple months ago on the photographers website and being pissed about it. I did not even know it being held at the trash fence, that they left their trash behind, and that is was corporate sponsored. I would tell the photographer that shot this event to remove the article from her website.

    http://andihatchblog.com/featured/featured-town-country-november-2011/

    I just did a google and found this little ditty. The Fat Radish, NYC restaurant appears to be the co-sponsors!!! This person went to b-man just for the party!

    http://www.taryncoxthewife.com/?p=9769

    “Carl Heline at Krug graciously inviting us to the exclusive Krug Champagne Dinner held at Burning Man. 120 guests would dine on a lavish feast cooked by The Fat Radish Founder/Chef Phil Winser and Ben Towill and sip Krug champagne all evening. So 15 hours we drove in our rented RV to Black Rock City with open minds.”

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  • Remi says:

    Boycott zoo camp too. thats a real shame… Good work bmorg for finding this out and kickin a$$. I will never again buy Krug champagne.

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  • Trouble says:

    I might add that a naked guy asked if he could lap dance on me at a party and I said sure and after he was done, he thanked my friend and I and gave us an un-opened giant bottle of spiced rum. That spiced rum was awesome and is now my “go to” choice on the playa for the past six years. :D

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  • nemimi says:

    Eew.
    I wonder how long the organizers stayed in the desert. I can’t imagine Krug or Town & Country thinking of Burning Man as anything more than a backdrop for a photo shoot. Don’t get me wrong- I loves me some fancypants champagne from time to time and I certainly love the idea of hosting an elaborate dinner party in the middle of the playa, but the motives here suck.
    Also, shame on you, Town & Country. Next time I pick up a magazine full of $1,000 dresses & overpriced hotel suites to keep me entertained in a grocery store line or dentist, it won’t be yours.

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  • Vanessa says:

    I came across the exact same scene in 2010, without knowing at first what it was.

    I was in deep playa and there was a banquet being laid out. Being the burner I am, I offered to help.

    There were tons and tons of moop-laden items that were shipped there – decorations made of feathers and loose fur, lanterns that were lit and let go into the air.

    It was extraordinary and decadent, but something felt really wrong.

    After helping set up the entire thing, I asked one of the guys there what this was about, and it turned out that he had been hired by The Zoo camp to put the whole thing together.

    Finally, an art car arrived with a bunch of cheesy dudes and possible-models, all with professionally made costumes. It made me a little ill.

    I felt totally betrayed – I helped set this thing up, thinking I was part of some wonderful moment on the playa – only to find out that it was some bullshit dinner full of moop for some very un-burnerlike burners.

    Can we ban The Zoo?

    Gross.

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  • J says:

    A lawsuit now might not prevent publication, but would it deter future marketing events?

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  • EAM says:

    Here’s the asshole’s twitter account. https://twitter.com/#!/carlheline

    I suggest people let him know what you think of him….

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  • Clarity says:

    I’ve seen a lot of Burning Man like themes in advertising lately. Apparently it’s the new in-crowd to be in. Little do they realize the concept of Radical Inclusion. Ugh!

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  • G2crazy says:

    If you want to write a note to Krug, go here: http://www.krug.com/en/contact-us

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  • Deuce says:

    They’re lucky they don’t have a facebook page. I was about to nastify all over their wall.

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  • Josh says:

    No wonder they turned me down when I offered them some homebrew. It’s all making sense now.

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  • That’s sleazy.

    I wonder if Burning Man appeals to Krug’s target market, it doesn’t seem like it would. Or, maybe a few people wanted to go to Black Rock City on their employer’s or client’s time. That part I can really appreciate.

    However, the dishonesty is appalling. The dinner could have been staged anywhere. Advertising doesn’t have any sort of ethical boundaries like the press (well, when the press is doing what it should be doing) and they could have done the shoot for far less elsewhere. They went to a lot of expense, and I’m sure the photos looked awesome, but the lying is … it’s horrible.

    I’m embarrassed to have worked with some large ad agencies.

    Keeping Burning Man, Black Rock City and all of the related identity from being turned into a corporate whore house is no small task. In a way, it’s the old American spirit of “we know it’s impossible, but fuck you, we’re doing it anyway” fighting with the new American whatever it is of “everything is for sale as cheaply as possible.”

    Our self-consuming “culture,” for lack of a better word, will just use up the energy and wonderful weirdness of Burning Man if we’re not careful. If that happens, we’ll have some horrible mix of Vegas and Disney, where suburbanite cubile-dwellers will buy a pre-planned vacation long after the burners have left, long after the greed-based wrung the life out of BRC. When that happens, all we’ll have left are the fading nightmares of the demise of something too crazy, too free, too creative to not be sold and fucked with.

    This blog post makes me proud to be a media ho on the playa and (unofficially) off the playa.

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  • Burners.Me says:

    This was covered in Burners.Me recently, it’s great to get some back story on it. Cheers to Evil Pippi for endorsing BMOrg’s support of radical inclusion – the 1% are welcome at Burning Man, but these blatant attempts to cash in are not http://burners.me/2012/05/03/look-daaahling-a-sparkle-pony-burning-man-in-town-and-country/

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  • Rio Gordon says:

    Wow…this is so terrible that this happened…of course they had to go out deep to escape detection! what a bunch of shit that they left their garbage and set up as well, all the wood, and stakes and guy lines too? Don’t they realize that BLM has standards on MOOP which dictate if the permit will be approved the next year…luckily some ‘real’ Burners prolly saw it and cleaned it up…Zoo Camp should be censured, maybe even fined and screamed at a little! And buying Krug? Forget it…boycott is on now, and I will tell all my friends who can afford this product (many) to do the same…this is the worst example of defiance of ten principles and commodification I have heard of…as we say in Hawaii, “AUWE Krug” which means ‘woe or for shame’…nuff

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  • Star Child says:

    This is so upsetting. I am sad to feel now as though I want to keep burning man a secret and not talk about it to people. An event based on radical inclusion and self expression, such a beautiful idea carried out for so many years, now known to so much of the world and attracting such scum. Society blogger says it wasn’t as scary as she thought it was. Hopefully this year monther playa has a real dust storm to scare these types of people away

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  • G2crazy says:

    You can scold Fat Radish at: info@thefatradishnyc.com

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  • Zinnober says:

    Krug for president 2012!

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  • Bob C says:

    If you want to let Krug know how you feel, send them a message at http://www.krug.com/en/contact-us I just did, saying I would never buy their product again.

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  • mscot says:

    why is zoo camp allowed to continue its existence?

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  • CG says:

    Question: Can Krug or the advertising agency be sued? It doesn’t sound to me like BMORG is taking proper action to the fullest extent.

    Question: Can Zoo Camp be banned?

    Obvious: They could’ve set this up on a playa near LA at less cost. Obvious: the ADs and other jackasses wanted to expense their Burning Man vacation.

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  • Mona says:

    There’s another way to fight it, get on Facebook and Twitter and shame them into doing the right thing. Apparently Town & Country took the article down from their site, they knew it wasn’t cool. The great thing about social media, is that it’s the new Better Business Bureau – brands/businesses can’t get away with the things they used to.

    http://www.twitter.com/@KrugChampagneUS

    Can’t find their Facebook page, hmmm.

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  • Roy says:

    Let Krug know how you feel!

    Here is their facebook page:

    https://www.facebook.com/krug

    also Twitter:

    https://twitter.com/#!/KrugChampagneUS

    and YouTube:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/krug/feed

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  • Amy says:

    Will Zoo Camp reappear on the playa? Maybe with a diffetent name. D-bags.

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  • Cordell says:

    I take it this means that all burners will be boycotting every brand that is part of the LVMH portfolio.

    Here’s a partial list for those scoring at home:

    Moet, Veuve Cliquot, Mercier, Hennessy, Glenmorangie, Belvedere, Ardbeg, Domaine Chandon, Fendi, Donna Karan, Pucci, Givenchy, Kenzo, Berluti, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Loewe, Celine, Thomas Pink, Acqua di Parma, Christian Dior, Guerlain, Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Zenith, Hublot, Chaumet, Ruinart, Sephora, 10 Cane, DFS, Le Bon Marche.

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  • Roy says:

    Krug
    Reims (51100 – France), 5 rue Coquebert
    TÉL + 33 (0) 3 26 24 44 20
    FAX + 33 (0) 3 26 84 44 49
    krug@krug.fr
    President of KRUG : Ms. Margareth Henriquez

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  • Amani says:

    Brava, Candace. Well-written, poignant.
    Someone posted this ‘contact us’ link on Krug website:
    http://www.krug.com/en/contact-us
    Give ’em hell, all.

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  • Valdemort says:

    This is disgusting. Should have rounded up a DPW crew to drag them all out and strap them to the man prior to pyro load in.

    BTW, you may have been too late to stop the printing, but they can still be sued for copyright violation. I’d be happy to help with that one pro bono. IIRC, it’s up to $30k per violation, and each picture printed could be a violation. There is also the potential for criminal penalties, as this could be considered willful.

    I hope you pursue it.

    And here’s the contact page for Krug.

    http://www.krug.com/en/contact-us

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  • CG says:

    Shooting without a permit is a big no-no. The BLM can get involved and sue as well.

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  • Matthew Ramos says:

    I will never drink Krug champagne for the rest of my life. I will actively discourage anyone else from doing so.

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  • Nat Best says:

    I am a wedding planner and we frequently order Krug for our events. After reading this, I can assure you we will never order their product again. There are many other options on the market and I will give them my business instead.

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  • Leslie says:

    I wonder how many of them involved got a ticket this year? Take it away and give it to me. I even blacked out the words Eddie Bauer on my shelter.

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  • Epiphany Starlight says:

    Wow.
    @ Leslie- I’m actually glad you used to buy their product… because my outrage wouldn’t be felt as I almost never buy champagne… but they’ll notice a few hundred folks like you. I think I’ll go buy some champagne just so I can not buy theirs. Money is their language.
    @gitasanchez- I see your point but I believe BM can and will hold to its principles and continue to be a mystic experience for those seeking that experience. This is just an opportunity to strengthen our resolve.
    @Eater- They can have cochella, bonnaroo and ultra. They serve a different purpose and I believe are raising the frequency of the youth so they will eventually understand.

    I adore Burning Man and believe we can grow, evolve and stay in our integrity with what we want to create.

    I can’t blame people for being curious and wanting to belong to something so amazing, they just don’t understand. Our job is to educate and protect.

    Thank you Evil Pippi for keeping the community informed.

    Did I say I love BM?

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  • SG says:

    That’s it? No legal repercussion to Town and Country?
    *laugh*
    You’re just setting up the downfall of BM now – because now every PR agency out there knows they can get away with this, and more importantly so do corporate marketing departments.

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  • Shaolin Monk says:

    Ok so this was a strong piece and words well placed and delivered….clearly Krug had it coming and the folks at Zoo fucked up…

    BUT

    WE HAVE TO STOP THE INTERNAL BURNER DRAMA BULLSHIT NOW!!!!!

    These comments calling them douchebags etc is totally uncool. By doing this you are fucking up the vibe at BM worse because you are negative camp branding and hating on other people who have worked just as hard and busted there as just as much as you to make it to the burn….

    It is the one reason I may not even go this year….the culture is negative….people making rude comments to other people…knocking down fellow burners rather than helping them stand up…the playa has become simply a microsism of society at large with everyone cozying up in to their own little comfort zones and camps and hating on everyone who is different…I live in NYC…I don’t need to haul ass halfway cross the country to a middle of the dessert to see that…I can simply walk down my block.

    So fuck camps…fuck brands…fuck politics…Burners better rewturn really fast to their roots or this whole thing will have been a miserable failure.

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  • Harinama says:

    Krug can SUCK MY BALLS.

    I will never touch a bottle of that swill in my life. And i am more than happy to boycott every single lvmh brand..

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  • Bernie says:

    Is Krug gonna be banned from Burning Man as well?
    They should be. I see that Town and Country will be banned but I think it’s only fair to have the champagne company banned too.
    This shunning should include their art car and possibly the camp they were with as well. Make an example out of all the participants.

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    • Andie Grace says:

      @Bernie,

      It is not fair to say that the entire camp nor the art car’s organizer’s were necessarily implicit in the connection with Krug. Don’t really have that information. It could even be possible, I suppose, that few in the camp outside of the Krug representative & hired guns knew much about the commercial connection or thought the “birthday party” was anything but a birthday party.

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  • nikineedles says:

    Taryn Cox seemed very impressed with himself and his Krug dinner:

    http://www.taryncoxthewife.com/?p=9769

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  • pandosey says:

    This is a link to a commercial that reminds me of burning man. it’s filmed in the desert and has the costumes and steampunkj going on a bit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivt-wa3fIj0

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  • Hogpile says:

    I’m actually a little RELIEVED this was a stunt. When I came across the Town & Country article with the photos of the beautiful, well-groomed people in couturier costumes, I threw up a little in my mouth. While their methods were despicable, somehow a gross, deliberate violation of the principles seems better to me than a gradual erosion of them.

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  • Zen says:

    taryncoxthewife.com has published the pics from this defiling of the event and continues to be quite proud of them.

    You might want to drop her a note and ask her not to come back to the playa. The hypocrisy in her piece is overwhelming.

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  • Max LaCosse says:

    Total douchebaggery. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Burning Man has become so mainstream, there will be more of this.
    “The place has gotten so crowded, nobody goes there any more.”
    –Yogi Berra

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  • Rini says:

    Well BMORG are certainly experts now about ruining your brand and credibility through poorly planned and even more poorly executed actions…

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  • Bernie Sr. says:

    “If I EVER see this kinda shit happening while im there Im setting the crap on fire.”

    Thats what Paul Addis said.
    -and it didn’t stop anything.

    Its as pointless now to continue to expend energy clinging to finer and finer points of difference between official BMorg-approved commodification and other companies’ commodification as it is to continue to expend energy dragging all that stuff up that mountain.

    Burning Man became mainstream long ago. Let go, and do something new.

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  • Heyu says:

    Just wonder how this exclusive Kickstarter temple “reward” dinner on the playa is radically inclusive at $500.00 a pop.

    “Pledge $500 or more
    4 Backers • Limited Reward (16 of 20 remaining)

    An Invitation to a Celebration! Enjoy a once in a lifetime feast–dinner on the Playa with David, The Temple Crew and Rev. Billy Talen, Savatri D & the Church of the Stop Shopping Choir– a night to remember.
    Estimated Delivery: Aug 2012”

    Fundraising is OK? ….OY

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  • Foxfur says:

    So that’s what that shindig was! I have photos of the aftermath and believe me, it was UGLY. I’ll be posting the photos on my (totally non-commercial) blog. Click on Foxfur above…

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  • Shenanigans says:

    a simple websearch on Krug and Burningman reveals the catering company who put the feast on, and left it all to blow away.. silkstonenyc.com/food/dinner-in-the-desert/
    Plan your parties appropriately.

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  • Tyler says:

    Someone should have walked up onto the table, dropped trou, and pinched a loaf onto their food…

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  • Frank says:

    Oh please! You have created a product that has gone completely mainstream and now you are angry at people for doing something mainstream. Agree that leaving the trash behind is thoughtless but do you really think BM embodies the same principles it did 10 years ago? I would strongly say no. Its turned into a giant party drinking drugfest with some art and most people pretending to play along. Its not the same and never will be. Getting mad at people for using it as a backdrop for an ad is ridiculous. It happened because now everybody knows what BM is and its a good marketing idea. Get over it.

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  • Diane Graziano says:

    Shame! I’m an educator who will not get to go to Burning Man until I retire, five years from now. Every year this event occurs on the first week back to school. This is not the week to miss, if you know what I mean . I am crossing my fingers that this wonderful opportunity will still be an option in 2017. As for Krug. I am an avid wine drinker and will not be purchasing from this company again.

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  • concerned denizen of brc says:

    evil pippi (and andie grace, if you see this) –

    ive been waiting to see whether another concerning incident from bm 2011 is also discussed publicly. is there a good contact email to use to report an incident?

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  • Tomcat - DPW says:

    Aw shit. We had no idea this was some commercial bullshit. We ended up there after making it to point three (that’s the far point in the 6:00, Man, Temple line) and seeing it far off down the fence like a glittering city. Except I knew there was nothing that was supposed to be there, and so we biked nearly a mile to it. Turned out to be this installation, which looked like a New Year’s party where everyone had left, complete with half eaten fake food. Ok, I was probably on something and I only poked at one plate and assumed it was all fake.

    I guess it was fake, all of it because if someone is going to set something like this up for a photoshoot, they aren’t likely for clean it all up. And because it wasn’t on the official Art map, it’s a bit more likely to have not been checked during Playa Restoration. I’m on that crew, and we take pride in what we do. But when someone sells out the event, they are selling out a lot of volunteers and low-paid crew.

    If a commercial entity wants to do a photoshoot in the Black Rock desert, they can get permits from the BLM to do so. They don’t need to exploit our efforts and community good will to do so.

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  • Biff Brannon says:

    I think the original premise of BM being a brand, that can be protected, is ironic given the cultural norms of gifting and inclusion. All brands should be invited to spread the word and culture, at no cost, with proper guidance. Philosophy aside, it’s free advertising.

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  • Buff says:

    Sent by me to Krug (and a similar one to Town & Country)

    RE: Your product in the Town & Country article, Social Network: People, Places & Parties – Desert Tribes / Burning Man 2011

    Krug Champagne,

    I am disgusted by your blatant disregard and commercial exploitation of the Burning Man Culture. You are the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. As if your shameful and uniformed representation of our unique and sacred gathering wasn’t bad enough, you furthered the insult by using it as a crass marketing platform.

    To engage in such activities in a place that not only clearly prohibits such behavior but also in a way that runs completely counter to the obvious sensibilities of the event and its participants displays a staggering level of disrespect.

    You should be ashamed of yourselves.

    You have ruined your brand to me. I will no longer be a consumer of your product (Ha! I haven’t had a drink in over 12 years! – ed). In addition, I will ACTIVELY encourage everyone I know and meet to boycott Krug.

    Sincerely,
    (my real name)

    Apologies to those who already saw this on the Burning Man facebook page.

    Hugs!

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  • Oli says:

    Hi everyone,

    My name is Oli. I am the creator of the Zoo camp.

    I have been to BRC for the past four years. On my first year I was still living in France and heard about BM from friends in the US. That was 2007. At the time nobody in Europe knew about BM. On 2008 I finally hit the playa with 3 friends, knowing nothing about it. We discovered the playa, its amazing people and its values… a life changing experience.

    On my second year we decided to create a camp and share this experience with other Europeans who didn’t have a clue about BM. On that second year the camp had 75 members and 70 of them were virgins on the playa. Burners were saying we were crazy to bring so many virgins but everything happened perfectly… playa’s magic!

    On the third year the camp had 110 people, 60 virgins amongst them, and last year 130 people with at least 50 virgins. I mention this because I want to outline our passion for BM’s values and our passion to share these values with new people. Every year we have tried to bring more to the playa, more creativity, to give more time and energy.

    Now please allow me to clarify the incident that you are talking about as I think it is worth explaining. You have shared what you saw and felt, please let me share with you what really happened.

    Ben and Phil, two 27 years old amazing British guys who created a restaurant in New York (The Fat Raddish as you mentioned it), are our friends. They proposed to take care of the food of the camp, budget which has been divided within the camp members, as many other camps do. Everyday they prepared the food of our camp and also organized the dinner on Thursday night for my birthday. My birthday dinner on the Thursday night has been always been a tradition of our camp.

    Carl, who is also a friend for many years, proposed to bring champagne to celebrate my birthday. The champagne he brought was shared at the beginning of the dinner with everyone who was there. The dinner lasted all night and over 700 people joined what was a great night.

    Unfortunately it happened that Carl decided to publicize the fact of having bringing his Krug to the desert. When Carl offered to bring the champagne he clearly stated it would not be with any promotional intent. This has been done without Zoo’s approval. Had we known it was going to be used that way we would have refused it BIG TIME!!!

    And yes, I personally saw photographers who were friends of Carl and who were taking pictures all night. I never imagined pictures would be used for press. In fact it was only after BM, once we saw the article in the press, that we learned they were used in a commercial effort.

    In regards to the location, we were granted a permit for the construction of this incredible table at this location. Everything was cleaned up after the dinner and the rest was finished in the morning light. The only thing not removed immediately was the dinner table.

    The table was incredible, it was built by Phil who is a fantastic architect. On Friday afternoon, when we came to dismount it, it was being used by dozens of burners who were using it to have lunch and dinner so we left it there until the end of BM. Over four days hundreds of people used this beautiful table. Phil and Ben even received a medal from the BM organization for its construction.

    Now, how can you say that our Art cars were Krug art cars? Our Art Cars had nothing to do with Krug… nothing at all! They were built by the members of our camp, amongst them many burners who participated in the construction of the Waffle. That’s why it had the look with the wooden sticks that many people on the playa recognized.

    I am deeply sorry for this incident. What was supposed to be my birthday dinner gathering friends on the playa has ended up being used outside of BM for commercial purposes. This was completely unknown to me and to the Zoo and the concept of it is against our will. We are sorry and can only regret.

    However, I do not think the Zoo camp should be blamed as much. For 4 years the Zoo has integrated hundreds of virgins, coming mainly from Europe and the 4 corners of the world trying its best to promote the values ​​of Burning Man.

    Our camp is deeply in love with Black Rock and respect its values. To condemn hundreds of people who have participated in this camp because one person has crossed the borders seems very unfortunate.

    I am the creator of the camp. Blame me if you must, condemn me if you must, ban me if you must. I take full responsibility. But please, do not deprive the rest of our members. During the last 4 years they have brought happiness and color to BM and it would not do justice to put on them the blame created by the act of one person.

    We understand your concern, we agree and deeply regret that a border has been crossed. We have been living with it since last year and I tell you it has been a heavy burden on our shoulders.

    We have always striven to do our best for burning Man, but sorry to have fucked up on that one.

    PS: After four years and a lot of sweat for BM… I didn’t get tickets at the lottery this year…. maybe justice has already been done!

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  • Andie Grace says:

    Oli – see my comment, above – it seemed that it could be possible most of the camp didn’t know what was going on. Curious to hear more from you. Contact me at actiongrl@ this domain – let’s talk.

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  • Pete says:

    Unimpressed… I came upon that party scene and new it just was not right. The setting was nice, but the photographers seemed too eager and my burny-sense was tingling in the negative. Fascinating piece of shittery.

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  • Rider says:

    I totally agree with Andy Grace ! Those quick judgements are unfair … Krug as surely forced the rules of BM but who knows it was agreed with the zoo camp ? This dinner party even got awarded by BM’s founder himself ! STOP JUDGING THAT FAST IT’S DANGEROUS…

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  • Eileen says:

    Oli,
    I can appreciate that perhaps you and the rest of your camp mates had no idea that your friend intended to use your birthday for promoting his company. However, the party was NOT cleaned up. I came upon the party, similar to Tomcat – DPW, seeing the lights from afar. What I found was a very strange scene: the remnants of a dinner party. Empty Pellegrino bottles were strewn around (though interestingly not a single empty Krug bottle), broken glass, broken lanterns and paper napkins. Honestly, I felt like it could have been an art installation to make you feel like you just missed a great party. But the broken glass and the carelessness of how things were left made me think there must have been another story behind it. I’m sickened by the learning the real story behind it.

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  • 24/7 says:

    Want to make this right Zoo? Its easy. Hire attorneys, and SUE THE SHIT out of Krug and this magazine for illegally publishing photos without signed consent forms. See how easy that is?

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  • Burning Crotch says:

    BMOrg upset someone is commodifying Burning Man?!? LOL! Hypocrisy at its best.

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  • Bernie Sr. says:

    lawsuits on the playa??
    see “mainstreaming of Burning Man” comments above.. I rest my case.

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  • Samsa Lila says:

    Anyone see the new Absolut Vodka commercial? Totally Burny….sigh
    Oh well….
    this quote still rings high in my mind:
    “Time to take Burning Man to the world instead of the world to Burning Man”

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  • Bill Callahan says:

    Time to start a “Boycott Krug” page on Facebook, I say.

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  • T-Bexx says:

    Woulda been sweet if a nice white out had come in and fucked it all up for them!!

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  • spect says:

    fb message, guess they may not get sarcasm

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  • CG says:

    @Oli I’m just not buying it. I don’t think you were totally in on it, but claiming you were completely ignorant doesn’t feel right. For fucks sake people say there was crew trying to cast attractive burners to the party! Fess up and take more responsibility than that. Nobody is that dumb, I hope.

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  • Burning Crotch says:

    BMORg now censoring this blog. Thanks Big Burner! My original post was deleted: “BMOrg upset someone is commodifying Burning Man? LOL! Hypocrisy at its best!”

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  • Terry says:

    Oli — thank you for the explanation. As the self-stated camp organizer, you do bear a burden of responsibility for what happened, just as you bore the joy from all the good the camp did.

    Burning Man is a participatory event, with a long history of incredible projects, gifting, and of being a “bring it if you want it” event. In that vein, I suggest that you, your friends Carl and Phil, and your camp decide what you can do to apologize to the city at large for this occurrence.

    Don’t mouth empty apologies for 2011. Make it right in 2012. And do so in a manner which exemplifies the 10 principles which so many of us feel were selfishly, shamelessly violated.

    I would consider it an act of contrition if you donate skills, time, and energy and gift something incredible to the city: another table, perhaps, and champagne and meals provided to anyone who wanders up. And by “gift” I mean precisely that — no photo’s, no self-promotion, no sense of entitlement, no mention on Krug’s website. A gift freely given.

    Otherwise you have only yourselves to blame for the disdain and disregard for being nothing more than a talking head spouting mea culpas.

    Terry

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  • Andie Grace says:

    @Burning Crotch um no, now your post appears twice.

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  • Andie Grace says:

    Our comment policy is clear about when we’ll remove posts. http://blog.burningman.com/comment-policy/ — I removed one, much earlier today, Mr. or Ms. Crotch but it wasn’t from you.

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  • Terry says:

    Crotch probably didn’t refresh the page, and got served a cached version that didn’t have his comment. Happens all the time

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  • Calling You Out says:

    Oli, maybe not everyone in your camp knew, but how in the hell could someone with your background, with your experience, with your expertise in promotion/branding not see what was happening around you?

    You are neck deep in the cross promotional world of PR companies and websites in NYC (like https://www.thecools.com/) and party clubs in France doing business/cross marketing events with Moet Hennessy http://www.institutbonheur.com/
    http://thecools.tumblr.com/post/13205321097/yosuzi-sylvester-and-olivier-van-themsche-of-the

    And someone could draw some pretty strong conclusions from the fact that Institut Bonheur promotes mostly Moet Hennessy spirits at its events, that Antoine Arnault (son’s of the owner of LVMH) owns a part of your businesses in the USA, that your business partners are Pierre Raygot (PR manager) and Elie Riachi (Artistic-DJ director) for the Zoo camp/Institut Bonheur.

    Seems like this dinner was a way to thanks shareholders and business partners at
    no cost for Olivier, Pierre and Elie. Then Moet Hennessy can use BM’s
    trendy image to promote Krug as a trendy champagne (See Also: pre-sold article to W, referenced here http://eplaya.burningman.com/viewtopic.php?f=189&t=50492 but taken down, and the pre-sold article to Town & Country )

    So Olivier, either you are not being honest, or maybe you don’t know your promotional business as well as one might expect.

    Friends, the playa is like the subway: IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING. Go to Media Mecca at Center Camp, or tell a Ranger. The Media Team at Burning Man has kick-ass PR pros and lawyers on site and available around the clock to respond to this sort of thing. It’s attempted often, VERY few slip through like this one. Don’t let it happen again.

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  • thatdude says:

    Oli, the stick art car was from Zoo Camp too? Reading the thread about the New Sound Policy over on the Mutant Vehicles section of ePlaya, that stick thing was universally loathed and almost single-handedly responsible for the new sound restrictions.

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  • Brian says:

    The event company behind the stunt –

    http://www.silkstonenyc.com/food/dinner-in-the-desert/

    They DEFINITELY should be banned as they were probably the guiding force behind this.

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  • Rider says:

    where are we going with all this hate people ? This isn’t burning man either !!! Why all that I don”t understand ? Krug fucked it up OK but that’s it ! Why all this hate on people who were just trying to enjoy BM not trying to enforce the rules !!!

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  • Burners.me says:

    “I have to say, I feel for Oil. Did he really SIN? When we see all the things that happen around us with war, crime, politicians – in the scheme of things, is this really the worst thing that’s ever happened at Burning Man? Can we blame everyone at Zoo Camp? Isn’t Burning Man about love, a world without hating and blaming? Sure, it’s clear someone hooked up PR and sponsorship for this party. And it wasn’t BMOrg. But it seems like they did get permits and approvals. And no-one’s saying money changed hands on the Playa. It was a way to fund a party, it seems like a great dinner, wish we were there.”

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  • Ali Baba says:

    Wow. I saw the T&C article on the photog’s blog a few months ago, after someone posted the link online.
    I didn’t even notice that it was product placement; I was just pissed about the feather headdresses!
    In fact, I had meant to write T&C and tell them that feathers aren’t welcome on the playa, and that their readers should know not to bring them, if they show up to b’man.
    I’ll gladly boycott all those brands. Some of those are very tasty, but there are plenty of other delicious products in the world!

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  • Corina says:

    Oli seems to be comfortable lying. He was neither the first European to come to Burning Man, nor do I believe for one second that with his job, he didn’t know what was happening.

    As a 4-time Burner over 8 years (and now-former Fat Radish regular), I’m grossed out. It’s a shameful thing, and though I never cared much for Krug, I’m done with Fat Radish because of it. Marketing is my whole work life, too, but can’t one f’ing place for one f’ing week not be bastardized for marketing?

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  • hapto says:

    You know — lots of vitriol here about very legitimate stuff.

    I would like to add that OMG feathers! “Moopy-Moopy-not-reading-the-manual-attendees”

    Come, play, Read the manual, twice, then listen to it on tape in your luxury jet. I don’t come to your fancy uppercrust parties without behaving to match your sociocultural norms, why do you think its ok to not return the favor?

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  • struggles says:

    seems like the only numbskill still not redacting or apologizing for their publicity of this stunt is this random anti-feminist sparklepony blogger who has made a business out of celebrating the repulsive 1950s. i threw up in my mouth when i read her ABOUT ME
    “Taryn’s role models draw upon the influences of iconic ladies of the 1940’s and 1950’s, who unfalteringly flaunted their femininity and proudly cared for their homes, husbands and children. These ladies are stylistically inspired by Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy and June Clever. The Wife enthusiastically upholds the romantic ideals of the home-maker.”

    people like this still exist????

    i doubt she’ll approve the comment i left on her blog so i’m repeating it here.
    <>

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  • struggles says:

    oops my aforementioned comment on her site http://www.taryncoxthewife.com/?page_id=2
    is as follows:
    “cool how you violated the 3rd principle of DECOMMODIFICATION by attending corporate-sponsored party and posting photos online, carefully mentioning KRUG. then again, despite being female, your whole business identity glorifies the pre-feminism (and pre-civil rights!) 1950s era of oppressive misogynistic domesticity, so i guess you are no stranger to hypocrisy.”

    sigh… a feminazi’s work is never done…

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  • Julian says:

    Oli,

    I’d like to hear your response to ‘Calling You Out’. I was ready to give you some benefit of the doubt, but he makes a compelling case. It looks as though you’ve disgraced yourself, and your camp mates. I’d say Krug disgraced themselves as well, but I doubt they even care.

    At least Paul Addis was acting with some sort of integrity, misdirected as it may have been.

    “By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising…kill yourself. Thank you. Just planting seeds, planting seeds is all I’m doing. No joke here, really. Seriously, kill yourself, you have no rationalisation for what you do, you are Satan’s little helpers. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now. Now, back to the show. Seriously, I know the marketing people: ‘There’s gonna be a joke comin’ up.’ There’s no fuckin’ joke. Suck a tail pipe, hang yourself…borrow a pistol from an NRA buddy, do something…rid the world of your evil fuckin’ presence.”

    Bill Hicks

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  • Jeeves says:

    Well I think the Burner thing to do here is have about a dozen Krug-mocking camps and events in 2012! Get pictures all over the web of Krug-themed circle jerks. Krug piercing rituals. Krug-branded port-potties. Naked, vomit-encrusted Krug Klowns staggering through passed out ravers.

    They want their product to be associated with us? Really?

    Let’s make them regret that move…

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  • PeterQ says:

    Oh, get a life – you want to have an event that is “known” but when someone wants to take advantage of that “being known”, you boohoo. It’s the big wide world, not just a desert fest…

    This is not unlike the “Occupy” Idjits, who eventually couldn’t even agree as to what it was they were complaining about..

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  • lawest says:

    @ Shaolin Monk – WOW ONE person with some sense and perspective in this thread really that people dont seem to be able to see this:

    “Ok so this was a strong piece and words well placed and delivered….clearly Krug had it coming and the folks at Zoo fucked up…

    BUT

    WE HAVE TO STOP THE INTERNAL BURNER DRAMA BULLSHIT NOW!!!!!

    These comments calling them douchebags etc is totally uncool. By doing this you are fucking up the vibe at BM worse because you are negative camp branding and hating on other people who have worked just as hard and busted there as just as much as you to make it to the burn….”

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  • Tomcat - DPW says:

    Look, when we got to this thing the first time sometime before 2am Friday morning, we dropped our bikes nearby and people leaving from sitting there said ‘you can pretend you were at a party’ and that’s what we thought it was, an art piece where people were having a party then disappeared. Paper plates with chicken bones and stubbed out cigarettes on them, discarded paper party horns, empty bottles and glasses all down that long, long table. It was a huge mess.

    That’s something you aren’t accounting for, Oli, and shame on you. You had a party and then left the mess. Then you came back to clean it up *the next morning* and left the structure up for others to make a mess of.

    See, and from my perspective I wonder about this ‘permit’ you claim to have gotten and if there is possibly a disconnect here between whomever gave it to you (did they tell you their name was Ranger Nine?) and how the process works for Art Installations. From my understanding, having a half-dozen Playa Restorations under my belt, Art that gets placed is GPS’d so that post event we can go and check each Art site after the event and make sure there isn’t a huge mess behind that requires further attention.

    I have had the honor of doing this very job before. You go out to the coordinates, you walk around a bit, in a wide circle. Can’t take too long, there’s lots of sites to cover. Sometimes you see where the artist built their sculpture, you can see the screws and bits of wood chips. Sometimes you can see where the foot traffic, perhaps where participants sat or laid down (ala the Cubetron) was because there’s all that ‘fell out of pocket’ trash. Mostly though, you read the dunes and the playa and can tell where the Art was (because GPS isn’t tremendously accurate) and you find no trace because the artists have left no trace.

    I’m mentioning this Oli because the folks in the office will read it and note the concern, that if the Artery folks are gave you a ‘permit’ — and no one is against unplaced art — did they realize just how huge your installation would be, and also, that you were going to glibly leave it there for the rest of the event? Did you tell them you planned to leave it as I saw it at later that first night, after your dinner? With the plates of half eaten food and empty champagne bottles?

    You haven’t addressed the mess you Zoo folks DID leave. You planned to leave that all out there overnight? That’s horribly irresponsible at best, and I wonder how you could possibly take sole responsibility for that, when your whole camp it seems just got up and left. You couldn’t have taken the trouble to bust out a trash bag and pass it down the line? You were too looped up on free champagne that you all just wandered off like a pack up filthy hippies?

    If there had been weather this year there would have been an unholy debris field left behind in your wake. I’m sorry, left behind in your birthday party. That Oli, is something that every person in your camp who was at your party should be ashamed of.

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  • Cheese Simon says:

    Thanks for the post! And kudos for making it a balanced, thoughtful article.

    Here’s hoping Krug learn a powerful lesson about community and social media from the feedback I hope they’re going to get…

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  • Cruzn says:

    Just goes to show that there are about 10 sides to every story. Oli, I appreciate your post, although I’ll never go to Fat Radish and I’ll certainly never buy Krug again.

    Here is a lesson that has been taught to children at Kidsville – Oli it sounds like you have some ‘friends’ who could use this lesson:
    DON’T BE A POOP, PICK UP YOUR MOOP

    What is MOOP? Of course we all know what that is, we have all read the Survival Guide as required by the contract written on the back of every Burning Man ticket which we agree to and enter into that contract by using the ticket – MOOP is Matter Out Of Place

    What is a POOP? A POOP is a Person Out Of Place – for example: someone who shows up on the playa without having read the Survival Guide, or someone who wears feathers on the playa, or someone who promotes a brand or product at Burning Man, or someone who takes photos for commercials at Burning Man.

    Of course, due to the principle of Radical Inclusion, despite their cluelessness even POOPs are generally welcomed at Burning Man.

    Although, here is a hint for your next playa party – instead of inviting ‘beautiful people’ invite Real People. Real People are more fun and way more beautiful than ‘beautiful people’. And Real People are generally not POOPs.

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  • I hate to be the naysayer here but … if the main gist of this is to hand-slap a company for using Burning Man as a way to “promote its brand,” then why stop at Krug Champagne?

    Black Rock City LLC might as well go after Opulent Temple (run by Opel Productions LLC), performers from The Do Lab (also an LLC), and prevent The Mutaytor from pever erforming as well (yup, they’re actually an LLC). And that’s just three high-profile “brands” off the top of my head. There are literally THOUSANDS of brands building awareness and customer loyalty out there on the playa, and many of them are WAY more visible out there than some fancy-pants champagne that, before this got posted on the Burning Man web site, I had NEVER heard about.

    So they hosted a dinner for some VIPs, and blogged about it … frankly, that doesn’t sound all that much different than some of the fetes I’ve heard about at First Camp. Just sayin’…

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  • Booka says:

    At the 2011 Burn, around 3:00 area there was a Camp of Russians. They had the most exquisite pavillion with a roof terrace and large swing on it. It was obviously created off Playa by a wonderful Artist and craftsmen, very professional looking. Then there was the “Camp” behind it; about 25 multimillion $ RV’s just packed to the gills with young Russians and Russian hookers, none of which had even the slightest clue about “the 10 principles”. Basically, they all behaved as though it was a Moscow disco. Nightly leaving MOOP and pissing everywhere. I was in the Camp next to them and found cause repeatedly to complain to the local Rangers for a lot of very unBurner -like behavior. It was explained to me that they were the children of a bunch of Russian Oligarch’s. The Rangers knew of their daily hijinx and seemed extremely passive about the repeated abuses from the group, showing up a couple of times to remind them to keep the MOOP down. It did very little good. About Wednesday another 20 ultra deluxe RV’s cruised in to add to the party. I bring this up as it was to me such a blatant abuse of all I hold dear with Burning Man. The 1% might be welcome, but I can assure you from my own personal observations that they enlarge, do not hold anything sacred, and will lie and use anything, and anyone for their advantages. I do not believe one word of “Oli’s” mea culpa, and see him, his Camp and others like it as a poison seeping in from the default world. The Burn is NOT the “country fair” of previous years, and for those that would ACCEPT THAT FACT and try to retain the good that still IS the 3rd largest city in Nevada, for that week; they would do well to drop the “Radical” from radical inclusion before Madison Ave. makes the Burn into their private photo shoot. Is it so inherently wrong to draw a line? If you want your freedoms, sometimes you have to fight for them. I don’t want to change the Burn, but others DO, and in that light to blithely sit by and allow it (in my mind), carries more guilt in destroying the Burn than all the Oligarch’s and crooked promoters put together.

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  • Cuchulainn says:

    It looks like what Calling You Out posted above has caught you lying Oli. Last year I had the privilege of having a beautiful couple from France camping behind me. It was their first year and it was splendid watching them experience the burn and be transformed by it. What shame you bring to them. Needless to say I will be boycotting all the brands involved and advise any first time Europeans who may have been thinking of camping with The Zoo to find a different camp, as it would seem The Zoo is under poor leadership. Blacklisted for the rest of my life: Krug, Town and Country, and the Fat Radish. Consumers have the power.

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  • Dan Afgon says:

    Adrian Roberts Says:
    May 17th, 2012 at 12:31 am
    “I hate to be the naysayer here but … if the main gist of this is to hand-slap a company for using Burning Man as a way to “promote its brand,” then why stop at Krug Champagne?”

    I agree. But of all the companies using Burning Man to promote themselves, Bootie is the WORST! Bootie comes to Burning Man and is just a bunch of music and mixing and grooving and dancing and colored hair and DJs and flailing around and doing things in the bedroom that boggle my mind.

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  • Dmichel says:

    Well, it seems to me that this is simply “jetset culture 101”.

    Jetsetters put fun and individuality above everything else so you might think they’re compatible with BM culture, but they also value exclusiveness, carelessness, irrespect, waste, unsustainability, and not giving a shit about anyone bellow them in the social ladder.
    They will lie and cheat to get they way, and feel no remorse for the suckers that trusted them.
    They just want to have fun and throw away their money while the World crash and burn.

    If you think their culture is compatible with BM values, you’re in for a rude awekening.p
    Jetsetters are not just rich people who want to have fun (nothing wrong with that), they’re a corrosive culture, leaving nothing but scorched earth behind.

    You tried beeing inclusive with them, what a superb idea.
    How is that working for you?

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  • Bob says:

    Oli Says:

    “Carl, who is also a friend for many years, proposed to bring champagne to celebrate my birthday”

    “Carl” is Carl Heline, the brand director for Krug.

    Oli Says:

    “Over four days hundreds of people used this beautiful table. Phil and Ben even received a medal from the BM organization for its construction.”

    Uh huh.

    Oli, you are a liar.

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  • Bingbong says:

    “…stop these marketing stunts, and protect our community, before the commodifiers make it into the city.”

    should read, “…and protect our commodity”

    such righteous indignation coming from the BMorg about commodification sounds very hollow. long ago, BMorg took the aesthetic of the anarchist lifestyle – co-opted it and commodified it into what you see today.

    the city IS the commodity. it’s one giant pre-packaged holiday where regular folk get to play around like they’re anarchists.

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  • Stauntino says:

    Hey Oli (and everyone else)
    I want to take you up on a comment you made..(“I have been to BRC for the past four years. On my first year I was still living in France and heard about BM from friends in the US. That was 2007. At the time nobody in Europe knew about BM”)
    ..In 2007 plenty of people in Europe knew about Burning Man… I had been building an Irish bar (The Paddy Mirage) out there since 2004 and I was by no means the first.. We traveled from Ireland each year and our camps varied from 50 to 120 from all over Europe… You are not some kind of trailblazer who opened up Burning Man to the rest of Europe… We were there before you and will be there after you..
    Having said that, I think that the kid did wrong. End of story. Whether it was through naivety, stupidity or com-pliancy its done and over. Burning Man community is wiser and Zoo camp will be more diligent. Learn the lessons and move on. Don’t dwell on what we cannot change. Camps like Zoo camp offer people coming from Europe security, a shared experience and are essential to creating a bigger community outside Burning Man when we get home.
    Camp leaders must realise they take on a massive responsibility to communicate the Burning Man message to all Virgins and everyone in their camp. Any complacency and the message will be lost. If you are not equal to the task, don’t take it on.
    And remember to show respect for each other always…

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  • Corvus says:

    It’s too bad we can’t find where Krug’s next little fete will be (You know there’s going to be one) and crash that. Imagine a couple dozen dusty burners invading a white tie event at some swank restaurant. Let ’em blog about that.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    “Danielle ( TattooGoddess) Says:
    May 16th, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    If I EVER see this kinda shit happening while im there Im setting the crap on fire. I don’t care. I will be on the playa for weeks removing the burn scars on my hands and knees. but this shit is not going to fly if i see it.”

    Thats What Paul Addis Said, Honey….

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  • Paul Dominic Lopez says:

    Condell, let’s not get out of control here. Its one thing to stand for something it’s another to go crazy! “I take it this means that all burners will be boycotting every brand that is part of the LVMH portfolio” we all know that divisions of companies are run by CEOs and boards that don’t always disclose their full agenda to even their parent companies, I know this for a fact, I was part of the corporate structure. Let’s concentrate on the groups that directly did this and not go overboard.

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  • meggie ghidella says:

    If this is true, why is a promotion and events agency in New York taking credit for this promotion????? How are you related to SilkstoneNYC?

    http://www.silkstonenyc.com/food/dinner-in-the-desert/

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  • Ivan says:

    >That was 2007. At the time nobody in Europe knew about BM.

    Man, the Belgians of 2006 Waffle fame were not just kickass engineers and artists but also time-travelers? Much more respect to them.

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  • Josh says:

    I hope they ban you.

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  • meggie ghidella says:

    Apparently this events agency also does promotions for other champagnes- Dom, veuve…

    http://www.silkstonenyc.com/category/design/#collapsed

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  • Andie Grace says:

    There is a lot of overboard here, judgment, and nasty tones.

    I’m just here to remind that we are watching this thread with an eye to keeping it civil and on track. Personal attacks will be removed, namecalling is totally unproductive, and critiques should be kept constructive, so….bring your A game of civility, please. It’s a hot topic, we get it. Be nice.

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  • tina says:

    this makes me want to bash a bottle of Krug over the heads of every person who commodifies the event, except those who work for the event, of course.

    we should all get together and find a way to ruin the lives of everyone involved in this sinful, dirty, disgusting behavior on the playa. we should find out where they live and investigate them and if they’re cheating on their wives, we can send photos. we should find out where their children go to school and taunt them.

    they will never rest again! burners are everywhere. we are vengeful, wrathful people who will deliver great justice to those who oppose us.

    JOIN ME, my brothers and sisters! rid our land of such sub-human scum. we will root them out and they will be lucky if law enforcement comes to their aid once we have our hands on them.

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  • Amos Humiston says:

    Um, isn’t Burning Man a brand, too? And Evil Pippi a publicist who works in branding events? There’s an interesting gray area here that is being ignored. Although I do prefer PBR to Krug!

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  • susan says:

    At my wedding last year, my husband insisted on serving Krug at the reception. At the time, I didn’t know anything was wrong with Krug, but now I know the truth. I can’t even look at my wedding album because every glass of champagne is Krug!

    This has been severely effecting me over the last 24 hours. My husband came home from work last night, and all I could do was think – you Krug-lover! My Krug-lover ruined my wedding. I can never look at him the same way again after learning about this. Now I know my mother and sisters were right about him. He’s no good.

    I’m glad he didn’t get a ticket this year. He can stay home and suck on Krug while I’m out dancing on the Playa with hot guys.

    Report comment

  • simon of the Playa says:

    Honestly…Krug?

    Jesus H. Christmas!

    i wouldnt serve that swill to my servants…

    Report comment

  • Hogpile says:

    While there is a fair amount of vitriol expressed here, it’s probably necessary to release some of the energy built up from a like this in the Burner time-space continuum. As a long-time participant and part-time Black Rock Ranger, I’ve learned that truth is often a muddy shade of grey. Things like this have happened before and will inevitably happen again. Our time in the desert is rarely Utopia. It’s full of learning and teaching moments. The intent and impact of events change over time but the best way to deal with them is in the moment. My personal suggestion (I don’t necessarily represent the org or Rangers in saying this) is that when you come across something like this in the future, don’t just look to “report” it. Engage them, talk to them and share your concerns and questions directly. After all, we all are the owners of this shared experience. Maybe the outcome could have been different, maybe not. Ask yourself the tough questions… Did I try meet the celebrants at this party and get to know them? When I saw a mess in the deep playa in the morning, did I stuff some random trash in my backpack or just think “this is a shame” and let DPW worry about it later? I’m convince that only through a policy of personal “radical engagement” will we solve our communities problems. We’re too big and complex a ecosystem to expect higher powers to do it for us. Let’s use this experience to own it next time!

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  • Fez says:

    Oli is just not telling the truth. There was no attempt to clean up the trash. If Oli wants to make things right, he needs to sue his friend Carl.

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  • Jimmy-bunny says:

    I just read this posting, and I’m actually feeling a bit overwhelmed. My brother lives in France with his wife who works for Krug. She’s been working there for 5 years. If it was my brother, I’d be more frightened for myself, but because his wife works for Krug – does that make me a bad person too?

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  • Andie Grace says:

    I do agree that it’s always shades of grey. I could name ten camps or projects right now that are not-so-gently affiliated with off playa business activities in name and in deed – as in, they do the same thing on playa that they do off (dance event, art, etc.) under the same name. I could name five more that upon investigation turn out to be affiliated directly with brands from the real world, including products, several tech companies, etc. but those have been pretty good about flying under the radar, and whenever they haven’t, usually neighbors have set them straight pretty quick.

    Displaying or distributing branded content and such activities are grounds for removal from the event, so if you reach a point of being unable to talk it out with someone, then yes, Rangers and Media Mecca can help.

    It sure sounds like Carl Heline pulled one over on his campmates and I wonder how many of them knew this was how they were being used. Oli says he didn’t know, but I’m curious what the camp did when they found out about the T&C spread. The hired guns at the PR agency were not evil people — they were doing their job, and until you read the Survival Guide and ticket and photo policy as an attendee, you might not know that Burning Man is not supposed to be used as a commercial product backdrop, I guess.

    I do want to hear more about how the people in this camp felt about the product placement advertorial when they found out about it. I don’t think it’s fair to write off the whole camp because one or two people made a really lame decision, so I’m withholding judgment on the camp.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    Jimmy, you are obviously a fellow traveler, and hence, under suspicion.

    i would avoid mentioning the french connection too, it carries a stigma.

    Report comment

  • Clark says:

    These are the photographers they hired to go behind BM back: Dylan Trussell, David Dinetz and Taryn Cox

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  • Nat says:

    Just a reply to Dan Afgon about Bootie. I’m from Australia and to me, Bootie is a website that I can get FREE downloads of the best mash-ups monthly.

    And then at BM I danced for 4 hours to FREE music. In tiny lil Perth, we would never have a club of just mash-ups so I thought it was awesome.

    Now I know that they also have gigs (what DJ doesn’t) but I’m confused about why you think they’re the worst. I don’t see it.

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  • Cruzn says:

    Meggie, you are right – it looks like SilkstoneNYC may have shut down the link that is in your post, but they still have photos of this event elsewhere on their site. It is a clear use of photos of Burning Man to promote their brand.

    SilkstoneNYC are also POOPs.

    Weird, that they actually show up at Burning Man to do these photo shoots. Other companies are going out to the playa at other times of the year to film commercials that just look like Burning Man. Except all of the people in the photos have perfect make-up and clean hair. Those ads are really funny, it is hilarious to see their models acting like what they imagine people act like at Burning Man.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    does anyone remember the temple of microsof…i mean Mezz in 2000?

    they had their own chefs and designer chemists in house.

    Just Remember The Medicis sponsored the Renaissance too…

    hate the Game, not the Playa.

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  • Andie Grace says:

    I was about to mention Mez.

    Isn’t a lot of the question about intent? And intent is hard to determine. Giving away free ice cream you bought, vs ice cream you found and got donated, vs ice cream from your company without a brand on it, vs ice cream from your company with the brand name displayed, for the purpose of promoting the brand.

    The first three have happened; the last one hasn’t that I know of, and to me would be crossing the line in the dust. This feels like it goes past the line.

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  • Eater says:

    This whole argument is stupid, but I would expect noneless from affluent self indulgent artists. The event has gotten progressively more commercialized throughout the years, if you don’t like that, stop asking outrageous booster fees and admission prices for “free self expression.” sorry that a company saw a business opportunity amongst a bunch of partying middle aged naked people, I know none of you work for businesses that set growing marketing opportunities as a priority. there’s real problems in the world and you people are bitching because someone crashed your dumb little party, you guys are the disgusting ones. How bout next year we hold burning man in Monrovia to ensure no corporations would dare send any repersentation to the event? O god give me a fucking break.

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  • Oli says:

    Hi everyone,

    First of all thanks to those who have tried to understand what happened, are open to forgiveness and ready to move forward. As some people were saying, we have learned our lesson, and we are ready and willing to be better. Next time will be much more careful.

    To Ivan and Stauntino, of course you are right, we were not the first europeans to hit the playa and never meant we were, I just meant to say that at the time BM was not as known and recognized in Europe as it is now…different times.

    Now I am really sad to see so many nasty messages and a continued aggressive tone; it is really far from what BM is. When I read people saying they would burn everything, when I read people saying some people should kill themselves… sorry but I am really disappointed, this sounds like extremists messages, people who want to make justice by themselves… it scares me and it feels really far from the love BM has given me all these years.

    Now to answer to a few points:

    To calling you out: Your conspiracy theory goes way too far from reality. You are mixing many things that have nothing in common. It is as if the people who were in Eric Schmidt’s camp were responsible for having a mobile network at BRC this year. Actually in an other camp I know someone else who works at At&T… should I blame her instead? Sorry but this is ridiculous.

    To Thatdude: about our art car, yes we had a big sound system such as some other art cars. It was created along the rules of BM and it was approved by the DMV. This year, the Sound Policy has been changed and again like previous years we will follow the DMV rules.

    To the messages about the 1%: I never felt BM was a place of financial conflict. Actually BM is about giving. Everyone gives what they can or want to give. Some people give a lot of their time, some people give a lot of money, it is how it is and it is precisely one of the beautiful concepts behind it, to give whoever you are, whatever you own. On my first trip to BM the theme was American Dream. I was right next to a camp dedicated to US strippers. The guy organizing it flew some strippers from LA, flew his chef in his private jet (BM has an airport for this planes in case you’re not aware) and gave open dinners every night to any burner who wanted to share his love for striping. Wowww… for me, freshly coming from Paris, it was a shock! I thought it was totally insane. Was it good, was it bad… I don’t think it is the point… It was not my style but i totally respected this guy taste and craziness. People are different and hopefully will always be, that’s the beauty of mankind and that’s what BM reminds us every year… you have the right to be different.

    Shall we condemn big RVs because other people live in tents? So shall we condemn the orgie camp because it hurts some people’s beliefs? Shall we condemn art cars with big sound system? Shall we condemn art cars with flashy colors? Shall we add more rules because this one likes this and this one likes that? I like to see BM as an open place for creativity, love and positiveness… it is a dream open to everyone where people try to experience a freedom that doesn’t really exist anymore in our society.

    It has nothing to do with the financial means involved. That’s my point of view. Cause if money has to be a taboo at BM then we’ll live the biggest hypocrisy ever! Come on, how do you think BM and its community create the 3rd biggest town of Nevada just for a week… and then leave no trace. Climb on the roof of an RV at night… it looks like a city of one million people… built only for a week!

    Be realistic, BM involves spending huge money. Let’s not be foolish. Is it a waste? Could we save lives in Africa instead? Yes. So who do we do it? Because it’s worth it because it serves a fantastic unique cause: to build the last utopia, the last world where almost everything is permitted, a world of freedom, because it saves our souls… and that is totally worth it.

    Andie, as you proposed i’ll contact you today and we can continue our chat in a private message if you need more info, i don’t think that all this aggressiveness brings anything to the matter.

    Have a good day everyone.

    Oli

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  • simon of the playa says:

    way over the line.

    it smells alot like Altamont to me…

    i dont like it, and have made my opinion known to the powers that be in our camp, and they DID make adjustments to the name on the “Outside” vs. On Playa as to not do the same.

    However, this appears blatant, and just like the new Paul Van Dyke Video or the Swedish Mafia Greyhound / Absolut ad, obviously we are going to have to deal with the fact that we are now “cooler than and hotter than shit” in the eyes of mainstream marketing, just as EDM and Dub-Step are now selling feminine hygiene products and Wheat-a-Bix,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npiBAlRN70Y

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbQME49k6p0

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbEy98llGRU

    expect this trend to continue unless we do something repugnant to alter their perception. (Dear Aesthetic Meat Foundation, are you Listening?)

    perhaps this too shall pass, but i dont think we are even close to peaking, yet.

    as i have said before, it takes a bit of mental gymnastics, but one has to think in terms of Burning Man infecting Defaultia as opposed to Defaultia invading Burning Man.

    perhaps, like paul on the road to tarsus, if Burning Man can change some of these people, Transform their ideas, and impress upon them the 10 principles, that this is a good thing…i would like the captains of industry to behave more like “Burners” if this is at all possible (and obviously, silicon valley has heard the dusty call, to a degree).

    Burning Man has come of age, it is Ripe and Fertile and Breeding.

    i don’t think that can be reversed, however, since it does indeed take a whole village to raise a child, i have high hopes for the Adult.

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  • Tink says:

    I agree with Eater.

    And don’t grovel, Oli. BMorg loves to blow things out of proportion just to see if people will grovel to them. It feeds their narcissism. You haven’t been to BM long enough to know how demented that bunch is.

    They’re never going to like you anyway. So don’t be afraid to ignore their BS.

    .

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Oli:

    1: You, your camp, and your clients were all part of this marketing and promotional stunt.
    2: You are a liar.
    3: You clearly do not understand Burning Man.

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  • Wolfy says:

    As someone who saw the before and after of this party honoring the zoo camp founder I can honestly say that everyone – as always – had different levels of respect for BM. Such is life, tolerance for others and allowing people their own experience is part of life and part of BM. I commend The zoo founder for speaking out and saying sorry but not for blaming Carl from Krug, you accept the gift of a party and drinks then you accept the backlash of opinions of others, krug isn’t the first or last brand to donate or pay for their product to have presence that’s just how life goes – reading about people saying death to ad or marketing people or sue a magazine that wrote what seems to be a nice story about the art and luxe side of brining man is sad and judgmental. There are tons of people who have millions taking jets to BM and others who have no cash and Sleep on dirt. Just like real cities in real life BM had all types of people and ur doesn’t seeming anyone lied, they did a party and took photos a story ran in a magazine that affluent people read and if those people go to BM they will probably get upscale rv’s and segways and have chefs and eat and drink fancy foods and wines, what’s the crime in that?
    Town & Country registered with BM and dud a story about this dinner and the style and art and various components that they saw relevant for their readers just like the new York times wrote about the upscale rv’s that had been in display or the bar that had people read porn to get served and posted on their personal Facebook which promoted their local bar in the city they’re from.
    Despite everything said or done there’s plenty of judgement here which isn’t why I love BM I thought we were creating a city that allows everyone to be free from the usual judgements of life outside this city,
    If the crime is not cleaning up then make sure to clean up but I’ve seen a million things done wrong and that’s human nature we need to address that everyone respects the rules but also one another and calling out people for doing their burn their own way is wrong unless it’s hurting another. I’m sad by all of this as I thought burning man fellows were family and you don’t treat family this way

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  • Leslie says:

    All:
    My friends and I happened upon the cleanup of this site on Saturday, as we were driving around in our car. We met Phil and Ben (who are the partners in Silkstone, the agency behind/involved in this) and saw them cleaning up the site by themselves. It was not especially messy, and looked interesting.
    One of our group suggested we help them with their task. The whole group of us piled out of the car, and began helping them take down the lighting and more. Many hands made quick work, and we made a big dent in the project quickly.
    We spoke with Ben and Phil, found out they were from NYC (where some of our group are from, and where I lived for 45 years), had a restaurant in Manhattan, and that this was a birthday party for the camp organizer/instigator. We had no reason to doubt them. It all seemed innocent enough.
    Finding out about this later left me feeling used and bummed.
    Then seeing this burningblog story and reading more about it got me to think it is time for apologies, from the camp, from Ben and Phil, from Krug, and others.
    I wish someone would just come clean with what the real story was. Who organized the use of Krug, who hired the photographers, did Burning Man approve the T&C story (I think not, but that is what the photog says here: http://andihatchblog.com/featured/featured-town-country-november-2011/), who did the PR for this, etc… And most importantly, how do we educate people and brands so that they do not do this and try it again?
    L
    I would like to believe

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  • Sorchita says:

    Oli

    Please address the fact this event was staged by a events company from New York.

    This company just took their burning man “dinner in the desert” page off their website.

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  • Bounce says:

    “about our art car, yes we had a big sound system such as some other art cars. It was created along the rules of BM and it was approved by the DMV. This year, the Sound Policy has been changed and again like previous years we will follow the DMV rules.”

    I know of quite a few people along A street that would disagree with the you saying that your “art car” followed the rules. Unless driving down a Ped Only street, and verbally arguing with the residents of that street is in the rule book…

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  • Papillon says:

    A lot of queen dramas over here. A majority of people here reminded Oli about the spirit of BM but forgetting that forgiving is also part of the spirit.

    Some folks are saying things like “burn them all” “destroy their lives” “banish them” for what is a shocking but a unique incident over 4 years for the Zoo Camp.
    We all have idiots friends and this Carl guy seems to be Oli’s idiot friend.

    As you may notice, it’s only Krug that used the phtoso for marketing purpose. As mentioned above, Oli seems to have a company of his own and if he is the bastard you all think he is, he would have promoted his own company instead of Krug. By the way, it’s inelegant to accuse people that have no relation with the incident as as Calling You Out did in his post. What’s the DJ has to to with all of this ? It’s clearly Krug that is the only beneficiary.

    As for the cleaning part, may be the BRC staff can help everyone see clearer by telling us if the location used by the Zoo Camp was cleaned or not.

    Spread the Love guys, try to find a human solution to this incident. The important thing is this not happen in the future, the past is gone now.

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  • CG says:

    Oli – your response focuses on a class war. you didn’t address that fact that you left a fucking mess out there. care to talk about that??

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  • simon of the playa says:

    i think that is the main issue.

    you guys SHOULD FUCKING KNOW BETTER!

    LEAVE NO TRACE.

    this applies to all, and had Zoo Camp adhered to this, there wouldnt be AS MUCH of a stink.

    quite frankly, thats what IM pissed at the most.

    inexcusable….

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  • Ellery says:

    Today I sent the following message to KRUG:

    Because of your behavior at Burning Man, I will not purchase Krug for my daughter’s wedding this Summer.

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  • Sherlock Homeie says:

    The part of Oli’s story I don’t get is how Taryn Cox (THE WIFE) says this: “Then in the midst of our planning [for Burning man] we got a call from Carl Heline at Krug graciously inviting us to the exclusive Krug Champagne Dinner held at Burning Man. 120 guests would dine on a lavish feast cooked by The Fat Radish Founder/Chef Phil Winser and Ben Towill and sip Krug champagne all evening.”

    She & Carl & their 118 friends must be pretty sneaky to get past Oli with their pre-playa plans to throw a Krug Dinner with Zoo Camp. She also refers to the Zoo Camp sound monster as ‘the Krug Art Bus’, but I can’t say it wasn’t her cute idea to call if that.

    http://www.taryncoxthewife.com/?p=9769

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Papillon:
    Oli does cross-marketing and promotional work for Krug.
    Oli works for Carl, Carl is Krug’s brand director.
    Krug hired Oli to organize and publicize the dinner and photo shoot.
    Oli and Krug hired Silkstone to manage the dinner, Silkstone owns Fat Radish.
    Oli and Krug pre-sold the magazine and photo shoot to Town & Country and W Magazine.
    Oli and Krug invited professional photographers to shoot the dinner.
    Oli and Krug invited and arranged for brand loyalists and society bloggers to attend the dinner.
    Oli and his team built Zoo Camp as a staging area for dinner “guests.”
    And then Oli, Zoo Camp, and SilkStone left a gigantic mess for Burning Man to clean up.

    This was not a mistake, or an oversight, or one person’s spur-of-the-moment idea. This was a carefully coordinated, expensive, and well-planned marketing campaign, and its directors and participants worked carefully to hide the campaign from the Burning Man organizers.

    And then Oli has the gall to say he’s “open to forgiveness and ready to move forward.” I’m sure he is. Whether the Burning Man community is ready to forgive Oli remains to be seen. if Oli truly understood and cared about Burning Man, he’d respect our rules and priinciples instead of breaking them and lying to us. The “human solution” is to ban Oli and Zoo Camp from all future Burning Man events.

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  • Scout says:

    Wow. Check out this post. I think it shows pretty well just how damaging doing the wrong thing will be:

    http://www.bretevan.com/investigative-web-analysis-case-study-and-storyline-krug-champagne-burning-man-pr-meltdown/

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  • Wineaux says:

    So, will Zoo Camp be back this year?
    If so, I hope they’re smart enough to have a crew stay after Labor Day to help clean up in an act of good faith that they will never let this happen again.

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  • talk_to_Oli says:

    For anyone who wants to contact oli directly his email is

    olivier
    at
    institutbonheur
    point
    com

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  • Temptres says:

    Heyu,

    First off it’s completely different to raise money for an art project that is for burning man then to advertise a company and product at burning man. If you’re going to get upset at Temple crew for offering a cook dinner with $500 donation then you might as well get upset at every single kickstarter that offer higher prizes towards donations that not everyone can afford. It’s called incentive. It’s for ART not for profit. There’s a difference.
    Temple is for everyone. It is one the greatest gifts burning man has to offer. There’s a huge different between a personal thank you dinner for an art donation at burning man for a project everyone at burning man gets to enjoy versus highly exclusive dinner used to advertise and commercialize a product name and brand.

    Also Oli,

    I went by your table last year on Friday night at about 2am and it was completely abandoned and trashed. It was covered in half eaten food, plates, bottles and nitrous canisters. Yes, I am going to call you out publicly for your table being covered in hippy crack canisters. You left that table a mess for hours in the empty playa. Everyone knows how windy the playa gets… that moop could have gotten everywhere in the time you left it alone. I have never seen one spot of burning man so disgusting before… not even the sound camps. No excuse. To blatantly lie about cleaning up is also unforgivable. Your camp disgusts me. Learn how to be a burn and don’t leave your trash every where. Leave No trace remember!

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  • Twan says:

    Fuckin pigs. It was just a matter of time before this type of infiltration would happen. Marketers have been trying to capitalize on Burning Man for many years.

    Fact of the matter is that all significant events and organizations are targets of interlopers. We as a community just have to be ever vigilant, and take creative, decisive action when we see a transgression in progress, or hear of one being planned.

    In the meantime, if you happen to have a website, build a link with text named “Krug Champagne”, give it a title of “Krug Cham- the worst crap at the highest price”, and link it to “http://ratemypoo.com/” .

    If enough folks do this, when people search for Krugs, this link will be at the top of the search results. Kind of like what Dan Savage did with Rick Santorum. Do a search for Santorum and see for yourself: hint -> look at the descriptions…

    Fuck Krugs and all those like them.

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  • Frogbird says:

    Wolfy says, “Despite everything said or done there’s plenty of judgement here which isn’t why I love BM I thought we were creating a city that allows everyone to be free from the usual judgements of life outside this city”

    I agree that one of the best things about Burning Man is that the usual judgements of regular life are cast aside. In a city where money is prohibited, how wealthy one is doesn’t really matter. In addition, I have seen a lack of typical judgment based on clothing style, looks, or any sort of social status as typically understood.

    However, the event in question seems to be performing the standard societal judgements that one hopes to avoid in BRC. The participants in the dinner appear to be hand picked based on good looks, trendy style, and connection to various socially elite circles.

    Reading this debate I have seen a common trend in the apologetics for these exclusive and expensive camps and events. The community as a whole is asked to practice “radical inclusion” and non-judgement in order to accept camps that seek to exclude people from elite private events and carefully judge who may gain acceptance to their group.

    I don’t think that it is appropriate or reasonable to say people cannot have private events or exclusive camps, as people are free to express themselves as they want. At the same time, just because you tolerate something doesn’t mean that you cannot criticize it. There are a lot of things that happen at BRC that are detrimental to the spirit of the city. While making BRC a police state would be even worse, there is nothing wrong with letting people know that their activities are ruining the vibe that they claim to be enjoying.

    Which is exactly what they are doing.

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  • Mac Fire Diva Kaul says:

    AHHH, this explains it. I saw the mess the day after the party and thought it was an art installation. Now I know why I thought “I don’t get it” when I saw it.

    Shame on them.

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  • Dusty Rusty says:

    Thanks, Frogbird….you just saved me composing a like minded post.

    There are a lot of private events that go on at Burning Man that you aren’t invited to. Some are rewards for donations to art on the playa. Some are BMORG events to woo Nevada pols into being pro-Burning Man and not instituting laws that would eliminate TTITD. Some are just parties with limited resources that couldn’t possibly accommodate all comers.

    There are also lots of little things that go on that are done for someone’s financial gain: Photographer’s (usually politely) asking you to step away from a piece of art while they take a few pictures of their model. I suspect there are plenty of model, actor and photographer portfolios that contain pictures with Burning Man as a backdrop. Maybe they don’t sell those specific pictures, but they use them to get other work.

    Do these things violate various principles? Sure, to varying extents. So does having a team of people spend a few weeks in the desert cleaning up so that we actually leave no trace.

    The principles are aspirations. We ain’t perfect. TTITD isn’t perfect. And there have always been people with megaphones yelling abuse at passerbys (see lots of the posts above)….but we don’t kick them out.

    All this to say: Anytime someone says “That isn’t a very Burner attitude/thing-to-do” I have to laugh because I’m pretty sure no one knows definitively what a Burner is.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    i know what one aint, thats for damn sure…

    and i calls them as i sees them.

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  • harinama says:

    Oli, you are your camp Zoo, are toast. I’ll be happy to drop by if and express my displeasure if your camp shows it’s face at BRC again. It’s quite obvious that you are being deceitful, and have a history of it, according to Vanessa. Yes it was karma that you did not get tickets this year, good riddance.

    Thanx Bob The Burner, for the REAL story. Deceitful, blatant attempt to profit off the burning man festival by corporations that couldn’t care less about anyone of us.

    Shaolin Monk-you can kma, i have a right to feel betrayed by the corporatization as anyone, and i will fight VEHEMENTLY to keep it away from BRC. An accidental uncovered corporate log is one thing, a deceitful pr stunt quite another. How about YOU figure out what is important to YOU and fight for that!

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  • simon of the playa says:

    i have this overwhelming urge to beat the shit out of ryan seacrest, but i don’t know why…

    i digress.

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    For anyone who still believes Oli, here’s a timeline of the events and an analysis of the relationships between the major players:

    http://www.bretevan.com/investigative-web-analysis-case-study-and-storyline-krug-champagne-burning-man-pr-meltdown/

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  • geeeeeez, everybody needs to take a breath and chill the fuck out.

    the gross transgressions are obvious and Oli feels bad for what went down so there’s no need to get crazy. also, this whole “IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING” is reactive. so what, now we’re supposed to confront and get pissed at every rich asshole partying on the playa? there was no way of knowing that that fancy dinner was going to end up on a magazine and that they were commodifying anything at that time. people bring a shit ton of booze to give away, are we supposed to question if a bar is being sponsored by Jim Beam, Coors Light, or Budweiser? or for that matter ANYTHING that is being gifted in large quantities? do we need to interrogate every photographer with a Media badge (clearly shown on the T&C spread) on what they plan to do with their pictures? double check everyone’s art permits???

    before people get Burnier-than-thou they should realize that this is a job for BMORG, Media Mecca, and the Rangers. save your demonizing and anger for people who arent cleaning up their MOOP.

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  • Kitty says:

    Just spent the last hour reading the blog and all the comments. Just about the most un-burner like commentary in all the years that I’ve followed BM. Whoops, I’ve only been to BM twice; I’m sure I’m not nearly as cool as anyone else who’s been there more than me. One thing’s for sure: BMorg folks are having a big laugh at all of us. I am not impressed.

    Wake up guys, there’s 50-60,000 people each year. There’s bound to be all sorts of people there, including riffraff. Do you think this dinner was the first time that people left some shit behind till the next day? Seriously? Y’all need to take good look in the mirror. Remember the fist time you went to BM, how you felt, and just stop hating.

    As for me, I think I’m gonna head down to Fat Radish, order me a tall glass of Krug and drink to BM.

    Love y’all beautiful losers.

    PS. Evil Pippi: I’m sure you are happy with all your Evil suppositions?

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  • Dookey Bones says:

    How about this: if y’all (BMorg) promise to NEVER have a lottery for ticket sales again, I promise to feel one single ounce of pity/ horror for the event surrounding Oli’s sponsored & well-documented birthday dinner.

    Y’all really fucked us over this year with the lottery. You don’t want me and my husband to come home? The place that gives meaning to the rest of our hum-drum existence and has become more of a religion than and event as @gitasanchez stated earlier? The one thing that makes me feel like “hey maybe i shouldn’t kill myself yet”? Fine. I am comfortable enough in my pettiness/ baby-pantsedness to say that if you want your community to care when you feel slighted by the big bad champagne companies, then you should let your community BE there. 10 principals should apply to how BMORg treats its Burners, not just how Burners treat Burners. “All Inclusive”? Pffffft. With this lottery, you dudes have turned this event Only-Our-Friends-Who-Work-With-Us-At-The-BM-Offices Inclusive (Zing!). I doubt a SINGLE one of you guys lost out on the lottery. Am I right? Any BM organizers over there in Reno/ Gerlach get treated to the same “fairness” of the lottery that we got treated to?

    Hooray for Krug and Hooray for The Zoo. Burning man turned against us, so we’re turning against it. I’m going to use the money I would have spent on Burning Man tickets to buy a whole mess of Krug Champagne! Bwaa hahahaha!

    i think i’ll go beat up Ryan Seacret with @SimonOfThePlaya and work out some of this hostility.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    ooooh, looks like the PR department is sending their minions out….

    Dookey Bones, im part of the Trash Squad who is out to make this go viral, and hence FUCK THESE ASSES OVER…

    karma is a bitch, No?

    so please, keep your Bourgeois little Diversionary Rant about the lottery to yourself…

    i pity the fool,

    fool.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    if i were you, i would just crawl back under the silkstone you came from and lay low…

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  • Rider says:

    THIS IS INSANE !

    THANK YOU WOLFY for finally some words of wisdom and PAPILLON too… I don’t know why but there are some very evil people talking in this thread !!! BOB THE BURNER ??? Who the fuck are you to say such things without having any clue of what happened ??? What is your goal in spreading some much crap around you ???

    I am a HUGE BM LOVER and I hate waste, trash, and marketing but what I hate the most in life and in particular in BM is people with EVIL VIBES who spend their entire life bullshitting about people and spreading wrong ideas and wrong facts !

    I am sure BOB THE BURNER and Calling YOU OUT is the same person and I don’t understand what is your fucking goal ! GET A LIFE AND STOP BITCHING ABOUT PEOPLE YOU SEEM TO KNOW !!! PEOPLE YOU ARE TRASHING ARE ACTUALLY PEOPLE WHO MAKE BURNING MAN HAPPENING AND MANY GOOD THINGS I AM SURE YOU KNOW… THOSE PEOPLE ARE HUGE HEARTS AND HUGE MAKERS !

    THIS ATTITUDE IS DISGUSTING ! Krug has fucked up, some mess has been done and not cleaned, OK ! THE MOTIVATION OF THE ZOO CAMP WASNT WRONG BUT WAS WEAKLY ORGANIZED…

    CAN THEY BE REALLY SORRY OR SHOULD WE FUCKIN HANG THEM AS THEY WERE WAR CRIMINALS ????

    WAKE UP PLEASE ! WAKE UP !

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  • Dookey Bones says:

    Fine, @Simon. Thank you for pitting the fool that is me. Have fun beating up Ryan Secreat and picking up trash by yourself then. “Karma (really) is a bitch”, so why are y’all stocking up so much bad-karma by being so terrible about this completely frivolous transgression? Chillax, dude! *Bourgeois little Diversionary middle finger at you* followed by *Bourgeois little Diversionary full mooning of my unwiped-ass at you*

    Guys, do we really need to death threat these company heads? @Tina: Really? “we should find out where their children go to school and taunt them.” Your message sounds dangerously similar to the Westboro Baptist Church people ranting about gay people and their families. Have y’all learned nothing form all the Anti-Bullying campaigns? Be cool to all them fools! Sure they should be ashamed for defiling the trash fence, but are you seriously going to spend a minute of your time trying to actively hurt another human being? Please don’t. Please please don’t.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    so i was right….it takes one to know one, and i smelled a ad man from a mile away…

    nice try with the Patton Boggs and Blow Routine, but reverse spin aint gonna help this one, Boyo…

    i suggest a full on Public Apology and Subsequent Community Shaming and Verbal Flogging until the offending parties ADMIT they fucked up instead of trying to cover or disguise their tracks.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    oh, now i remember why i had an urge to beat the shit out of ryan seacrest.

    because this whole bullshit is so Seacresty…

    trust me, you will lose the battle of the memes, so i would give up now before the congress bans french things that bubble.

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  • Papillon says:

    Some people have cleary an account to settle with Oli and the zoo camp staff. This discussion is childish and turning into a troll combat.

    Has Oli commited a crime against humanity ? No ! He confessed a mistake that doesn’t mean he is not respectful of the BM spirit. And as burners we should try to forgive instead of threatening, insulting and spreading hate. We all made mistakes .Once again, the important is that it won’t happen again which is what is supposed to make some ppl go nuts about this story.

    You all need to chill a bit.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    too late….cat.bag.out.

    Bien Sur…Zut Alors!

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  • simon of the playa says:

    too late….cat.bag.out.

    Bien Sur…Zut Alors!

    as if….

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  • Cruzn says:

    A note about the ticket situation this year – the lottery didn’t cause people to miss out on getting tickets. What caused the problem was that demand for tickets significantly exceeded supply.

    Coincidentally, demand for tickets significantly exceeded supply for the first time during the same year that a lottery system was tried for the first time.

    Next year, if the lottery is dropped and they go back to the old system of ticket sales, probably the end result is going to be about the same because it is likely that demand will exceed supply next year too.

    All the more reason to support the Regional events.

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  • T Groan says:

    @Cruzn I hate to beat a dead horse but the fact is the lottery system was flawed from the beginning and ended up exactly as many predicted. Pure & simple the lottery was gamed.

    I’m really sick of excuses being made for this terribly flawed system. At least if you’re going to exonerate the borg try and think up something new….

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  • Azalea says:

    I’ve never posted here before, but something about this topic, and this discussion, made me want to chime in. I came across the remnants of the dinner last year, I think around midnight. It immediately felt different than anything I had experienced in deep playa before. It made me feel uneasy, I think because of the sheer amount of trash that was on site. The night was unbelievably calm, but I remember being utterly perplexed that someone would have made (what I assumed) was an artistic statement of the remnants of a party without carefully securing down they myriad number of empty bottles, plates, and empty cigarette boxes. I ended up sitting at the table for almost an hour with three people I met there and having one of my most interesting and intense discussions I had at BM last year. So as much as it pains me to hear that this was a marketing scheme, it still resulted in a quintessential deep playa Burning Man experience.

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  • Evil Pippi says:

    What a wide range of responses! I think the goal of getting Krug/Zoo/Fat Radish to feel some pain has been met by the amazing social media backlash. And hopefully PR agencies and brands will think thrice before putting deceptive playa campaigns for fear of the Burner Wrath. @Amos Humiston, yes, I have been a PR chick for the past 16 years, 5 of them volunteering for and building Media Mecca. Over the years, I have had many clients come to me hoping to “capture Burner mindshare” (I kid you not) on the playa, and I know first-hand how much work it takes to secure high impact coverage, which is why I wrote about this. It touched a major nerve, and needed a spotlight. And @kitty, I am embarrassed by some of the comments on this thread, and hope many of you take a well-packed pill of chill indeed. Thanks to the many others of you who appreciated this post. Extra thanks to ActionGrl for helping me get it right.

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  • Yoshi says:

    While I understand the anger around this, all we can do is prevent this from happening in the future. (Org and participants)
    Although…I find it interesting how many people ‘came upon the scene and were disgusted’ but not one said they cleaned up any part of it.
    I’m sure it probably did happen or maybe people didn’t want to toot their own horn… However, if you do come across something like this on playa, if you have the ‘facilities’ and resources, CLEAN IT UP YOURSELF.
    Also. Oli… 5 people bringing 50 virgins is a horrible idea. How can you expect to educate, and re-educate and remind that many people of the principles?
    Limiting your Noobs – Limits Burners w/o a clue…
    (BTW…I can’t wait to see what happens this year…)

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  • phoenix says:

    Much to the disgust of many I am sure of it, the Zoo camp will be back. Oli may not have personally secured a lottery ticket but they are rich enough to pay for le maximum – 4 top tier tickets in first round presales – and the spare will have been redistributed…. A sad, living memory of the entire camp were that they would never truly appreciate the beauty of the event they were using like an elite playground. There was no true reaching out or participation outside their own clique. Yes some of the anger here is disappointingly ‘un-Burner’, but let us be straight, they were without a doubt looking forward to the circulation in the socialite press. So I must agree that perhaps their individuality would be expressed better at events like Coachella?

    G360 The Dreamers Camp will see the return of Zoo.
    http://burningman.eventbrite.com/

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  • simon of the playa says:

    oli and carl’s KLOUT score is gonna nose dive after today…

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  • van a gon says:

    Besides banning Town and Country, what about the photographer who registered and lied being banned, Zoo Camp being banned for having a branded art card and for knowing what was happening and krug being banned and can’t Krug still be sued for it’s employees violating the terms of the ticket their employees had to buy for the event?

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  • Pikachu says:

    Simon the troll of the playa

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  • Emkay says:

    Here is an advertisement for Black Starr Beer that was made at Burning Man:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUbiTWvdWoo&feature=related

    This was directed by Trevor Hubbard at:
    http://www.butchershopcreative.com/clients/black-star-beer/

    Shouldn’t this be removed as well?

    If we don’t police this who will?

    Let’s tell them, shall we?

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  • burnz says:

    Apparently the above “Burning Man Commercial for Black Star Beer” was also sent to a film festival:

    http://www.iphoneff.com/archives/3161

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  • Dani says:

    Oli Says:
    May 17th, 2012 at 10:48 am
    Hi everyone,

    First of all thanks to those who have tried to understand what happened, are open to forgiveness and ready to move forward. As some people were saying, we have learned our lesson, and we are ready and willing to be better. Next time will be much more careful.
    end snip >

    Yes, next time you will be very careful to not get caught! Open to forgiveness?! I am not. You and your POOPy camp can find another place to party. Ban the Zoo. I don’t care if only “some” knew about this. Have you heard the saying – one bad apple spoils the bunch?! Well – there you go. Whether you knew or not, Oli, I don’t give a damn. There were people in your camp that did know. Punish the lot of ’em.

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  • xtraslky says:

    I checked the theme camp listings for 2011 and there isn’t a zoo camp listed. curious…

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  • Travis says:

    Everyone that feels it appropriate to pass judgment that didn’t either (a) participate in the dinner or (b) witness first hand what was left behind are simply furthering another persons agenda and effectively becoming their minion. Anyone that doesn’t read this “article” and understand it is nothing more than propaganda to serve a personal agenda are either willfully ignorant or sufficiently stupid so as to not warrant a single moment of anyone’s ear.

    I wasn’t part of the Zoo camp. I attended the dinner. No one was “marketing” a product. Nothing was being sold. And I am pretty much certain that if anything were left behind originally, it was removed in the end. So why don’t we stop pushing the agenda of whomever clearly has a personal vendetta against the Zoo camp and start talking about a solution to a glaring problem within the BM structure.

    The issue, as I see it, is that Burning Man wishes to be an event free of “marketing” and “commerce” when BMORG itself is a marketing and PR engine. You can’t be a little bit pregnant. Burning Man is inherently commercial. While the W Magazine article was probably in poor taste, it is a non-event. We are talking about a birthday party of 100-200 people… Hardly a consequential event. Focus your energy on fixing the inherent flaws within the BM structure and stop managing to an irrelevant event (no matter how good or bad of an event this was … it represented less than 1/5 of 1 percent of the overall population)…

    Grow up. Deal with real issues. And solve problems that need attention.

    There will always be someone trying to profit from the BM “hip” factor. It will only get worse this year. What happened here is nothing. Move on.

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  • FlyingSquirrel says:

    Oli, Cheers for speaking up and attempting to address the situation. Ignorant Innocence, or Duplicitous Guilt, I’m not close enough to judge that. But it does take guts to stand up while the horde is clamoring for virtual blood.

    That said, in all of your responses, you continue to blatantly ignore the most egregious offense of the entire affair and that is the disrespect for the Playa and the arrogant disregard for the Leave No Trace tenet. By your own admission you were a major contributor/organizer/participant in the dinner. How you failed to even conceive that leaving that mess behind boggles my mind. Even if you counter with a “it wasn’t my designated responsibility within the camp”, that does not preclude you from your responsibilities as camp leader and BRC citizen. You can not in the same breathe claim to love Burning Man and silently piss on the Playa for your leisure. This is the part of the entire affair that I take severe umbrage with. I think it would honestly be a good idea if you addressed this point in particular.

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  • Tomcat - DPW says:

    I just want to say that I feel that radical self expression includes negative speech. If you find your mellow harshed while sitting comfortably at home on the internet, maybe coming out to the desert to get bleary eyed, dusty and dehydrated isn’t for you. Please radically self-rely a thicker skin. That is to say, it’s ok to grouse and bitch and moan and whine and curse and posture and smack-talk here. That’s expression. Radical, ain’t it?

    We as a community have only these words — sometimes chiding, negative words hissed and shouted in boos at our neighbors –to enforce our principles. I don’t know what the folks in the office are able to do about the egregious commodification (which seems to have been planned well in advance) of Oli’s birthday party. Clearly there’s a violation of Burning Man’s camera policy, even as revised for 2011. How the BM office chooses to enforce that is up to them. (I personally trust their judgement in these matters.)

    I have stated my concerns about the mess I saw, and others have posted confirming it. If there had been wind, there would have been a large area of mess, and the nearby trash fence might not have contained it. My concern is that somehow these folks got permission to build a large structure (FOR A DINNER PARTY?) in deep playa so it would make a good backdrop for their photo-op. Also I am concerned that that specific site’s GPS coordinates weren’t recorded and communicated to the manager of Playa Restoration so we could properly survey and assess it post-event. (This may have happened, but I trust having mentioned this again here, this potential disconnect is less likely to happen to permission granted ‘unplaced art’ in the future.)

    But this last troubles me because I’ve put in half a dozen Septembers on that crew, and have a passion and admiration for the entire city’s efforts in maintaining a Leave No Trace ethic. So far in the comments here, at no point has Oli addressed why they all just up and left the remains overnight. I saw it, others saw it. It was in no way cool or keeping with the spirit of the event. I can’t trust that Oli will honestly address it (much as he seems not to have addressed his apparent business relationships and the issue — early in the comments here — about the offending magazine articles being pre-sold.) So please, Andie or whomever in the office gets in touch with him, please communicate this point with him. Though Oli, and anyone who attended or organized this dinner party, are free to comment on this subject as well.

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  • Tomcat - DPW says:

    So while I was typing that out, it seems someone else who was there has commented.

    So, Travis, why did this group of 100-200 people up and leave dirty plates, party horns, bottles and trash along that long table?

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Tomcat>> “why did this group of 100-200 people up and leave dirty plates, party horns, bottles and trash along that long table?”

    Because none of them understood Burning Man or or cared about its principles. The people at the dinner were shuttled in, fed, given Krug and photographed, and they all assumed or were told someone else would clean up the mess–they were just there to enjoy the free dinner and Krug. Clean-up was not their problem–they were just the models hired for the shoot. Of course, Oli, Zoo Camp, Fat Radish, Silkstone, and Krug decided cleaning up their mess was Burning Man’s job, because, again, none of them understood Burning Man or or cared about its principles.

    Remember that Oli, Zoo Camp, Fat Radish, Silkstone, and Krug all worked very carefully to hide their project from the Burning Man organizers, because Oli, Zoo Camp, Fat Radish, Silkstone, and Krug knew what they were doing was against our rules. But they did it anyway, because they don’t understand Burning Man, and they don’t care about its principles. Oli, Zoo Camp, Fat Radish, Silkstone, and Krug wanted to use Burning Man for their marketing campaign, and when they were finished, off they flew to their next marketing campaign and product placement photoshoot.

    P.S. Travis? You may think no one was “marketing” a product, and nothing was being sold–that’s because YOU were the product being marketed and sold. You were photographed holding glasses of Krug and drinking Krug and having a nice dinner at Burning Man, enjoying Krug champagne. And that’s exactly what Krug will use to sell champagne. Remember, if the product is free, you’re the product being sold.

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  • Tomcat - DPW says:

    Bob the Burner, I can’t disagree with anything you are saying, but I am a little fuzzy on who picked up the plates and the lanterns and cleaned up the trash. Oli has said they were back on Friday morning, but again, beyond the commodification, what was their intention in leaving it as I saw it the night before? Did the caterers come back for their plates and things, and is so why wait til the next morning? Was it J.Q.Participant who cleaned it all up? Was checking the location for MOOP a priority for whomever took the structure down?

    As an aside, it is my opinion that a large dinner party that close to the trash fence is not only not a good idea, it was irresponsible to leave the structure up the rest of the weekend. As a comparison, consider Star Fucker Oasis. It’s there in deep playa every year; after the event you’d never know because the artists who bring it and take it away make sure there’s no trace at all.

    Oli discusses getting permission to build it, but who gave that? Evil Pippi says it was under their radar, and I don’t think she’s referring to the Artery folks. Anyone from the Artery care to chime in? Did Oli get permission from them? If he did, what was their expectation from what he told them? Oli mentions two guys getting a medal from the BM organization, but who gave them that and what exactly was it for?

    But above all I would like to know what the party attendees thought about what was happening when they walked away from their mess. Also, if any of them signed release forms to the photographers that day.

    No offense, Bob, but I’d like to hear it from them, if they are brave enough to answer. I’ll withhold the impending certainty of their douchebaggery until I do.

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  • bruna says:

    Lettre ouverte à Olivier-Joseph,
    Open letter to Oli,

    Olivier-Joseph, for your ‘rebuttal’ to be taken seriously you must first review your statement: “… that was 2007. At the time NOBODY in Europe knew about BM. On 2008 I finally hit the playa”. Your comment may actually somewhat reflect your limited interactions outside of your group of friends or peers.
    Burning Man ORG may have the statistic of the number of foreigners and Europeans who came to participate to the event since its inception and filed the Census, you were not the first Europeans.
    I know from my own experience over the years, I have interacted with many a European years previous to your coming to Black Rock City in 2008, as well as South Africans, Brazilians, Japanese, etc.
    You thrive on surrounding yourself with the ‘Peoples’ and the ‘Hype’ (1) and may be they did not know of Burning Man as it does represent a few logistical challenges and let’s face it is … dusty…! True Burners love the Playa for all of it. Showcase peeps may not.

    For Uchronia (aka the Belgian waffle) Arne and Jan brought along with them 45+ team members from Belgium and France. They not only KNEW about Burning Man but understood and honored its sheer philosophy. They each had immensely generous spirit. Some may not appreciated the shape and size of Uchronia at the start of the event, however they were fully embraced by all as they contributed to each and everyone of us in our collective Playa experience.
    And this was 2006.
    As Terry mentions earlier, as the leader ‘creator’ of the Zoo Camp, you have the responsibility of your camp, and it takes true maturity and time to be self reliant and prepared – a foundation principle of Burning Man. Unfortunately your campmates and/or guests chose to rely on you, or the other, or the group as a whole and did not follow through another foundation principle of LNT: Leave No Trace.

    You took the responsibility of bringing along with you an unbalanced Proportion of Newbies. Newbies can be seamlessly adapted if they are prepared, well informed and matured ‘travelers’. You planned the dinner with its catering but what about your cleaning crew? Any catering service, especially one of the likes of Fat Radish, knows there has to be cleaning duties after a catered event. It is hard to believe that having been there previously, you did not know that cleaning up and Leaving No Trace was a non-negotiable item in your prep list.
    The weather by chance was most clement. Dare we think the scene if it had not been the case? You showed a very poor lack of judgement in stepping out to follow your party rather than doing your civic duty as a member of Black Rock City and organizer of a special event, in staying behind to leave no trace or monitor the clean up of your festivities.
    It would have been one thing to leave the ‘installation’ as you call the table, for everyone to enjoy till the end of the burn. It appears that the Org, was not let in that plan.
    If so, how to you account for strewn plates, half finished chicken legs, party favors etc.
    How can anyone coming onto this deserted scene not come to the conclusion of selfish carelessness: a case of “Apres moi le deluge!” attitude.
    As 2011 was not your first year on the Playa, have you ever encountered such scene yourself in the past?

    Both your ‘apologetic’ messages do not fully acknowledge this.
    You were rather deflecting your responsibility, and in your second email you chose to bring up other issues and concepts around Burning Man remotely relating to the facts at hand.

    You are an astute and social businessman, as demonstrated in your many affiliations and business ventures, and as in many a documented special organized evenings and social gatherings in many ‘mondain’ (“society”) US or France based websites.
    You knew you were flirting with a few challenges. After all you had been at BRC before.
    Yes, you may have gotten the blessing of Org, however was all disclosed to them previous to their seal of approval?
    Or did you simply and charmingly spin the PR twirl. Hard to believe they would not have asked for a few points – cleaning up being one of their explicit top priority.

    Many man hours are spent picking up MOOP and cleaning up individually and collectively: anyone walking around, and at our respective camps, then previous to the Exodus, every inch of our respective camps is raked (literally and/or figuratively), then the entire footprint of the event is divided in finite grids to be painstakingly cleaned up by volunteers and DPW crew prior to releasing the leased land to the BLM.
    The renewal of the event permit to use of this federal land depends in great part on the impeccable clean up.

    A sarcastic idea is flashing by and I sincerely hope it is only my cynical self popping its head: Please may it not be a situation where you ‘offered’ the possibility of: “venez passer une semaine des plus folles dans le desert – tout compris pour XXXX Euros – je m’occupe de tout: les costumes, la bouffe, les tentes, etc!” “Ce sera dement, je vous le promets!” (2)
    That would be so against the initial principles in so many ways. It would So not reflect our vision of what the event is and needs to remain such while it evolves in size and reach.
    Afterall it’s still a bit intimidating and a clear logistic challenge coming from other countries, and isn’t it the one of the points of attraction!
    It also feeds the observer status rather than the commitment to participate in making the event. It might be -argh… sortta ok, however only if it does not infringe upon any of the principles to which we all agree when purchasing a ticket…. After all there has been actual world-renown celebrities on the Playa, somewhat incognito, and I don’t know that they were the ones pitching their tents or setting up their RV’s gray water tanks to evaporate. They most likely have had their crew set it up for them prior to their arrival. BUT their crew cleaned up.

    You brought so much to Burning Man you said, how?
    Isn’t this a bit presumptuous of you.
    Leave it up to the collective to decide on that.

    The number of newbies does not guarantee a stellar presence nor benefits to the Playa and the BRC dwellers, nor does it differentiate you from another valuable participant, nor does it make you more worthy!
    We all make the event, a key element being interaction (direct or indirect).
    Each of us affects the quality of the event by our behavior, involvement and generous presence.
    Without such, you are simply duplicating a private club setting, especially that the table was visibly set up for a defined party.

    Actually you do not have the exclusivity of organizing such.
    There has been many specially prepared splendid dinner parties at BRC previous and since your ‘hitting the playa’ in 2008 including an unforgettable one we were invited to, in which the second course was fresh Nyotaimori (sushi flown-in and presented on naked women). It was a discreet lavish fun and elegant event set within the perimeter of the hosting camp and NOT publicized nor published in any publication, let alone mass distributed media nor was it directly for a commercial ventures. Members of our camps have a ritual sunset dinner where they cruise in art cars to the end of the perimeter and bring with them everything ( furniture, delectables, drinks, etc. ) and take every single thing back to the camp afterwards. Simple, fun and respectful extravagance.
    Just the way we like it at Burning Man.
    With the continued increasing size of the event, it comes with the territory to have private parties, it’s simply how you go about it, really.

    Yes,you are right Oli, it does cost money to be at Burning Man, one’s pocket sets the limits of one’s vision, one’s experience, one’s splurge, again it’s how you chose to go about it.

    I am french, long time dedicated burner, and still not an entitled one, the type to whom all is due or ‘coulant de source’ because I grace the desert with my presence.
    I share my life between the US and Europe and in either continent, we make a point in seeking and enjoying the best of things and events including making detours for special events. Best is defined, in our book, as something with integrity, genuine representation of where we are, value of experience with true exchanges.
    Otherwise you may as well call it a form of selfish voyeurism as we would be in the role of observers while acting like ” please look at me I am cool, I am here, I am beautiful, I am special”.

    Olivier-Joseph, another concern regarding the numbers of newbies you brought in for that event is : how are they going to behave in the future should they return to the Playa? How will they pass on the principles to the newbies that they will in turn bring along with them? How will the basic well-defined principles be perpetuated? How will ‘your’ newbies give back to Black Rock City in the future?
    Unless BM2011 was part of their bucket list: things I have to do before I die – Burning Man: checked.

    Who knows (though it’s a bit too snobbish for us) we may have bumped into each other at “l’Eclaireur” when in Paris, we sincerely hope that if You and Zoo Camp members should you return to the Playa, you will all be more ENLIGHTENED!

    (1) In France ‘Peoples” is used to describe the “happy few” with some type of notoriety or celebrity… or behaving as such as if they belonged in that group. HYPE is a word used erroneously in france regarding something hot, the latest with a fair share of bling…where US and UK english speakers would use HIP.

    (2) “come and spend one of the funnest craziest week in the desert – all included for XXXX euros – i will take care of everything: food, costumes, tents, etc. It will be the coolest, simply crazy, I promise”!

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Tomcat – DPW Says:
    >>I am a little fuzzy on who picked up the plates and the lanterns and cleaned up the trash.

    In the above blog post, Evil Pippi says:

    “Krug just took their commodified photos and left the mess for us.”

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  • Leo says:

    ITT:

    douchebag burnier-than-thou assholes who think they never mooped anything on the playa.

    vengeful, wrathful people who can only be called burners because they buy a ticket each year.

    i love how the evolution of the event has lead to the burner community becoming such total fucking assholes. the evolution is complete.

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  • Yoms says:

    I was with Pippi when we stumbled across the site by the trash fence, later that same evening a friend mentioned that she had been approached by someone to see whether she’d like to attend a dinner in ‘Deep Playa’.

    Oli… First up – I find it hard to believe the whole camp knew nothing of this. People would have to be incredibly naive not to notice the buzz around a planned shoot of this kind. Having been involved in projects on the Playa for the past 14 years the logistics and preparation for what we saw that evening would require help from a lot of people. Even a surprise party takes some planning – your explanation leaves a lot to be desired.

    Secondly, what’s with leaving all the crap out there by the trash fence in the first place? You could of at least cleaned up – haven’t you heard of Leave No Trace? It was a mess, and you call yourself a burner…

    Oli, as for Burning Man and Europe… You need to get your facts right. We’ve had the Euroburners community since 2000, it spawned a regional burn called Nowhere in 2004! To say that no one had heard of Burning Man by 2007, is an indication of how blinkered you’ve been over this issue. Media Mecca processes more than 10 proposals from France every year!

    I can’t actually blame Krug, they were given an opportunity and took advantage. This community has worked tirelessly for years trying to prevent stuff like this happening, it’s no surprise that ‘one of our own’ would pull the rug from underneath us.

    Oli, this party was at the expense of an event that you claim to love – I remain unconvinced by your explanation – sorry.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    im still waiting for Godwin’s Law to kick in….

    come on, please, somebody call me a “Moop Nazi”….

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  • Cabe says:

    Oli mentions proudly that he had lots of Waffle crew in his camp. Would that be the same Waffle that can be reasonably suspected to have been planted by Lexus to help roll out a new car design? (I only believe what I read on the internet – if this has been debunked someone will correct me I’m sure. I got my info by googling Greg Stickin Man.)

    Interesting to note that what these marketing acts have in common is that they were perpetrated by camps of 100 virgins. It’s impossible to acculturate new folks if all their friends are also there for their first time, and they spend the whole time only interacting with each other.

    I’m glad the Org recognised the ticket lottery could have set us on course for a 20-30% virgin city, at which point the culture would basically be toast. Even so, we’re on course for a year in which any veteran who cares about the event will have to to be annoyingly burnier-than-thou in many more of our interactions than we’d like. But we all need to grit our teeth and get ready to explain the basics pleasantly, engagingly and honestly-helpfully to people who are there for the first time. If we get it right, they might stop their campmates from doing something stupid next year. If we just insult them or ignore them, it’ll make them more insular, and more likely to come back and do something stupid on a large scale.

    For my part I’m going to assume that every virgin I meet has a laser pointer in his pocket that he showed up planning to shine at the Man on Saturday night, and it’s my job to help him come to respect the event enough over the course of the week that he decides not to.

    Just like happened on Malcolm in the Middle.

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  • Pending says:

    Ever try to engage a liar? They will just deflect the conversation so they can justify their lie, and avoid responsibility for lieing. You can try to be gracious, respectful, enlightened, egalitarian, open-minded…whatever the approach you try; the Liar just maintains his lie, and his lie becomes his truth, in a byzantine complexity, to cover the fact that they can not feel anything other,or be honest, with themselves or those they lie to.

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  • Denny smith says:

    After a thousand posts on this I don’t know who still reads these, but here goes. I have been doing deep playa art for years, decorating the perimeter fence past the Man. Last year I decorated all 50 license plates. The year before fish, phobias, birds and so on. It’s such a unique part of the playa I can see why it makes for a great photo shoot. It insults me after the over 300 hours of time I spent preparing my gift at home before I arrived on the playa, others usurp the event. I wish I could have perchanced upon this dinner, figured out what was really going on and assembled people to ruin the photos by mooning them, or creating a dust storm, something to discombobulate the “commercial”, A kind of outlaw justice. But alas no such fun. However I see this as an opportunity to do a project mocking their project! Squirt gun attacks on champagne bottles or a giant moop (fake of course) recreation of that event with wanted posters of participants. It could be fun. But the bottom line is how this erodes the fabric of our city by turning it into a sales pitch, the opposite of one of the most exigent of reasons of why we are attracted to Blackrock, the giving of a gift with absolutely nothing expected in return. It is an emancipation of the spirit when you put a smile on a person’s face, a stimuating thought in their mind or some swag in their fanny pack! Let’s continue to root out this pernicious element and recapture the spirit of Blackrck City!

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  • simon of the playa says:

    “Social media makes it possible for even a small number of profiles/identities to instantly influence the image and memory/record of a brand significantly with very low “labor costs” resulting in long-term reverberations.”

    here is a blow by blow account of the controversy.

    http://www.bretevan.com/investigative-web-analysis-case-study-and-timeline-krug-champagne-burning-man-pr-meltdown/

    “What we are witnessing is an online community broadcasting it’s sentiment and value held for a brand based on the perception of a trespass. The incident may have been unintentionally damaging, but no one wins when things are done out of ignorance for image. All of this is really unfortunate because I imagine if they had worked with the community, they could have set up a potluck for thousands. And I would imagine that most would have loved to have knowingly been part of it.

    Yet, for this event to have a negative impact on Krug and Silkstone, a critical mass of attention will need to accumulate among their “primary” or core customers/audience. If this does not happen, then I imagine that this episode will quickly faze out. If this controversy does gain enough momentum then the Krug brand could be damaged, both in image and actual value. But, that depends on how Krug and Silkstone handle this.”

    ball is in their court, has been for a while.

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  • Buff says:

    Hello my lovelies,

    Well, obviously a number of people are disturbed by the anger expressed. I agree some of it is more properly channeled than others, but for those concerned about an earlier post that called for people in marketing to kill themselves (I tried to find it here so I could reference the burner who posted it but, c’mon, I don’t have all day. This is a big ass thread)… please know and take some solace in the fact that said burner is only quoting and legendary and hysterically brilliant riff by prophetic comedian Bill Hicks. The post credits the quote to Bill Hicks, but to those who may not know the name (boy are you missing out — dude was brilliant) I can understand how it might freak them out. It’s all about context. So I’m trying to provide some.

    I would include a link to the bit, but don’t want to risk this comment being deleted. But, seriously, it’s brilliantly hilarious. So good.

    For the few that don’t already know Hicks (his fame rises more and more each day even if he died almost 20 years ago – Thanks internet!), much like some of our beloved snarky and sarcastic burners, in reality Hicks loved us all, even if he was pissed. His caustic wit is underscored by true love and a burning desire for us to evolve to our very best. One of his biographies is even titled “Love All The People.”

    Hicks on child worship syndrome: “Hey, what does that mean? They reach a certain age and they’re off your fuckin’ love list? Fuck your children if that’s the way you feel and fuck you with them. You either love all the people in general of all ages or you shut the fuck up.” – Bill Hicks

    Don’t be distracted by the anger or f-bombs — the message is love.

    So worry not my friends! I doubt the burner was seriously saying that all people in marketing should kill themselves… even if they are “the ruiner of all things good… filling the world with bile and garbage.”

    Just wanted to drop a little context here, for all it’s worth.

    But people in marketing really should suck a tailpipe. ; )

    Namastayaway,
    Buff

    PS — I like fire. And explosions.

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  • ANGRY AT WORLD says:

    RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

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  • Los Angeles says:

    Denny Smith, are you an LA burner? I think I met you at the LA regional meeting a few months back. I was of the two virgins at the mtg

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  • simon of the playa says:

    i agree with buff 100%.

    I like lighting stuff on fire and blowing shit up.

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  • bruna says:

    to Cab

    While I can’t remember all the details of the Lexus commercial, I would like to bring up a couple of points regarding Uchronia aka the Belgian Waffle.

    I am not sure that the actual Uchronia was used in that commercial.
    I do remember a Lexus next to a structure resembling Uchronia after BM2006.

    Arne & Jan – the 2 partners behind Uchronia – have done a multitude of site specific outdoor installations and interior decors with similar lines, structure and use of the 2×4 in western europe. It’s their style, their signature.

    Look them up under “Arne Quinze”. I have gone into 2 boutiques and one furniture expo, all in Europe, where their work and style were prominently displayed and/or an integral part of the decor. (furniture was an early passion of theirs).

    They also have a flickr gallery. Amazon carries a couple of their books.

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  • Fire Starter says:

    Silkstone has chosen to remove our ability to send emails to them on their web site expressing our displeasure for their playa crimes. Please feel free to call or fax them instead.

    Silkstone

    Phone (646) 861-1546

    Fax (646) 861-1599

    Dear Oli, Krug, Zoo Camp and Silkstone,

    As a fourteen year burner, I would like to correct some misunderstandings about Burning Man. It is not only about “the love” and hippie values. Death Guild is not about the love, Barbie Death Camp is not about the love, etc.

    Burning Man was created by radical self-reliant anarchists and miscreants (Larry Harvey) – make no mistake! Shooting napalm, guns, blowing shit up and lighting things on fire was the major past time. Add sex, blowjobs, and bondage to the mix, and you are at Bianca’s smut shack or the Temple of Attonement. It’s about burning shit!

    Krug and their marketing campaign is total bullshit! Blow up Zoo Camps art car! Burn all their outfits in sacrifice to the gods. Steal their women!

    Keep your hippie values to yourself Oli. I go to burn things and blow them up! I don’t forgive you, Krug, Silkstone or any other users who plugged this stunt. Revenge with a blow torch and a public flogging!

    I hope that every burner on earth punishes Krug, Silkstone, and Zoo Camp until the end of time. Your apology is not accepted.

    Rawr!

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  • H.G.Crosby says:

    “KEEP BURNING MAN POTENTIALLY FATAL!!!!”

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  • Roberto Dobbisano says:

    I’ve done some research, talked to some people, especially one source in the know, we’ll call him/her “Deep Cork”, anyway
    “DC” has proof that this was a classic False Flag Operation set up by Larry and Cabal to discredit Manhattanites, Models, Caterers, Fancy Winers and AdMen.

    they’ll never serve crisp thai pickled string bean canapes in THIS town again…

    well played BMORG, Well Played.

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  • Anti M says:

    So Travis, Oli, et al., you attended a dinner party and walked away from the trash? Who does that?! It is not, and never has been, alright to do that. Never let it hit the ground… sound familiar? Screw all the other issues, how can you feel good about walking away from a giant pile of MOOP?

    Smells like it was left to the servants …

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  • Bob Stahl says:

    I’ve worked DPW a few times. Frankly, this kerfuffle seems pretty minor compared to the hassles of dealing with certain funded artists and the trash their installations generate during the event and what they leave behind after the event. And pretty indicative of the long-standing miscommunications among the various departments, and of inconsistencies in enforcing the most basic requirements of the permit.

    Seems apparent, or at least likely, that *somebody* with the org told these people it was okay to build their long table in the art space. Somebody with the DMV approved their branded party bus, somebody else blithely signed off on the media credentials of the writers and bloggers and photographers involved, somebody else looked the other way when they drove their catering truck out there, and somebody else didn’t follow up on the after-dinner mess.

    Of course, I could be wrong that the org is just shamelessly trying to cover their asses and make this a *community* problem.

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    • Andie Grace says:

      Bob – the party bus was not branded on the playa, it was called the Zoo Bus or something related…it was only described as the “Krug Party Bus” in blogs post-event. I haven’t been able to confirm any registration for the table/dinner as an art piece — so far of two table-related works registered last year, neither seems to be related to this piece (one was a pool table and the other doesn’t sound like it either: http://burningman.com/whatisburningman/2011/11_art_brc.html#wow), so I’m not able to confirm that they registered and got permission to build the thing. NOt saying they didn’t, but so far, cannot confirm it. The “we got a Medal from Burning Man” thing is definitely a mistake – Burning Man’s Artery doesn’t give “medals” or other awards to artworks, but the Necklace Factory theme camp has some kind of necklace or award they give out to artists, so maybe Oli was confused into thinking that came from us.

      There was no blithe signoff of the photographers involved; they registered as mid-event walk-ups (photographers are sometimes allowed to walk up register, though we’ll have to reexamine that now). They did so without telling us the specifics of what they came to cover, and we don’t give permission to publish until we see photos anyway.. post-event they showed us the photos and after we’d heard about the dinner party, we told the magazine, without question that they didn’t have permission to publish images; they did it anyway. Neither of those photographers is eligible to shoot at the event in future years. Writers and bloggers don’t have to get permission to write, so there is little to be done to prevent the written word. As for the mess, one person who helped them eventually said the two caterers were the sole crew out there picking up the whole mess the next morning, so these passersby stopped and joined in to help, not knowing what they were cleaning.

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  • GlenParkDaddy says:

    I will track down these zoo camp people and take a big dump in the middle of their camp next year. I encourage all of you to do the same.

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  • Jennifer says:

    I hope the instigators of this madness from Krug are holding on to their mother fucking hats because I think it’s about to get real for them. And Zoo Camp….I would hope that the entire camp gets tossed, and any known organizers of that camp should be barred from purchasing tickets forever.

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  • Bob Stahl says:

    Crikey, where’s the Hippie Drill when you need it?

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  • Playa Cowboy says:

    Quiet a tempest in a desert going on here. I recall a few Burns ago that a very large structure built out of seemingly random planks provided a spectacular burn. I don’t member the name of the piece but there were rumors (or maybe even facts) that BMW paid for the installation.

    In any event, I would like Andie Grace or even a higher up authority to weigh in on this. Maybe one of the members of the LLC or even the Man himself, meaning Larry H. Does Bmorg, accept as Andie’s posts seem to suggest, that Oli’s (or is it Oil) mea clupa is accepted and that all of Zoo’s transgressions are forgiven or is the camp being banned?

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  • Burners.Me says:

    UChronia behaved like true Burners; they might have cashed in but they Left No Trace. Zoo Camp did not: http://burners.me/2012/05/18/weve-been-down-this-road-before-uchronia-sells-burning-man-out-to-lexus/

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  • Linus Minimax says:

    Burners.me says: “I have to say, I feel for Oil. Did he really SIN? When we see all the things that happen around us with war, crime, politicians – in the scheme of things, is this really the worst thing that’s ever happened at Burning Man?”

    Oli’s got some benefit of the ignorant doubt, but make no mistake: this WAS a SIN and BY FAR the worst thing that’s ever happened at Burning Man. FAR WORSE than attendee deaths, since those don’t threaten Burning Man’s function as a MAGICAL ANTI-ENVIRONMENT to The Conspiracy, which is what is important.

    I’m very disappointed to imagine that Town & Country magazine, having very deliberately published without permission, faces no legal consequences. I’m only a WEE bit consoled to imagine that they, and those who blogged it out anyway, will face occult consequences for such craven violations. I like Jeeves’ ideas about not letting the Krug BRAND ‘get away’ with this and loading them up with bad publicity, but the stunts he suggests would probably backfire. I’m thinking: a ‘sculpture’ of a large bottle of Krug and a Town & Country magazine should be set up at the corresponding spot along the fence, with an explanation so everyone knows why they deserve our EMNITY, and then BURN THEM while consciously directing the psychic psmoke of bottled-up Burner-outrage to smudge and curse the brands forever. IT WOULD WORK, I GUARANTEE!!

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  • Bob Stahl says:

    Thanks for the clarification, AG. The org seems to have been relatively forthright in public discussion of this and the plug-and-play camp thing, and maybe just as baffled as the rest of us how these kinds of things slip through. I wouldn’t be so forgiving of artists and campers who fucked with me over and over again.

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  • june banana says:

    http://pinterest.com/pin/166140673722983927/
    A whole series of construction photos here…

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  • Burning Crotch says:

    Krug is receiving significant marketing recognition from this silliness. Bad publicity = good publicity. Great job, BMOrg. Any kickbacks involved?

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  • Playa Cowboy says:

    Andie, why do I get the feeling that you have been given the thankless task of doing damage control for “Bmorg.” The real problem is not the commercializaton of BM. The real problem is that the event has been structured to allow not only its (maybe not so) clandestine commercialization, but it is turning into a bourgoise party space with people paying thousands of dollars to buy pre-packaged BM “tours” with circle the wagon luxuary RV’s, gourmat food service, pre-made costums, their own reserved “mutant” vehicles, and even (yes!) concierge service. Its not about how much money these people have in the alternate world, even an newly minted FB billionaire can be a “real” Burner, its about whether they apporach the event as a participant or as tourist. I anticipate a lot of those tickets that were goobled up in the sale and presale by scaplers will eventually wind up on the hands of BM tourists. Personally, I’ve been going to BM since 1998, I don’t have a ticket and absent finding one I’m head off to the Alvord Desert in Oregon for my Burn even if its a Burn for one.

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  • Playa Cowboy says:

    P.S. Andie, Oli’s claim that he was clueless as to what Krug was up to is just
    f@#king unbelieveable.

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  • losers says:

    So many losers on this thread.

    They claim BM justice because something SO SACRED meant to be private was commercialized WHAT a SIN!!!!! What about your behavior, with your neighbors, your families, your cowworkers, your everyday. What about all the hate you have inside. What about that sacred title “BURNER” which you so proudly claim to bear and give your life to defend it but CANNOT even hold when you are so blind as to be unable recognize someone messed up, recognized it in public and asked for forgiveness. Do you really think this Oli needs your forgiveness? I mean, come one. Get over yourselves. LOSERS!

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  • FlyingSquirrel says:

    @Loser – it’s hard to forgive someone when their apology is laced with I-wasn’t-really-wrong-or-at-fault’s.

    Oli still has yet to address the MOOP left behind from the dinner party. Perhaps someone in private conversation with him or the camp can shed some light on that but I’d prefer it come from Oli.

    As to the hate that we spew here. People have a right to be angry especially over something so far removed from the principles the event espouses. So yes there’s vitriol to be had. Forgiveness will come with time, understanding and demonstrated correction.

    Speaking of vitriol, be careful there, buddy, looks like you spilled a little of your own on yourself there.

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  • Linus Minimax says:

    P.S. – Radical Inclusion includes the rich tourists, period. This is non-negotiable; therefore, their presence CANNOT ‘ruin’ Burning Man. Thankfully, there’s also Radical Self-Expression. If that doesn’t include telling off obnoxious rich tourists (if they are blatantly bad-behavioured and contemptuous of what BM is meant to be), then I don’t know what it means. In fact, there’s no better possible venue for archetypal rants by The Artist(s) vs. The Culture Vulture(s)!! And hellfire sermons are just the beginning: there are no doubt hundreds of other artful and effective means of making sure these folks leave with the blownminds/changedlives that they came for…. whether they think that’s what they came for or not!! This terrible horrible problem, that has so many “Burners” ready to pronounce the experiment dead or terminally colonized by illness, could become one of the reasons why new Burning Man is BETTER than it was before all these people who need its wisdom TOO BADLY showed up.

    Seriously, WHAT’S WITH ALL THE DEFEATISM???????????

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  • simon of the playa says:

    shut up, hippy.

    where is the Love?

    at the end of my steel-toe boot.

    leave a mess on the playa and your ass will be on the receiving end.

    this means you oli and your Ilk, if you would like i will translate it into french for you.

    Fuckez-Vous.

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Looks like Krug, Fat Radish, Silkstone, Zoo Camp, and Oli have their PR people desperately trying to deflect this.

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  • Corvus says:

    @Linus Minimax:
    Clueless tourists the community can take care of; I prefer point and laugh, personally. The perpetrators of this were neither clueless nor tourists. If what is being reported here is true, they deliberately and with forethought took steps to conceal what they were doing, presumably because they knew would be met with disapproval. The ones they were concealing from include BMORG, their camp director (If Oli is to be believed) and random participants who were inveigled to participate or lend a helping hand, as we are wont to do.

    Had all they wanted was to have a nice dinner in a remote location, they could have (presumably with BLM permits) come out the the playa before or after our event, put up their tables, and shot the whole shebang. They would then be free to do as they liked with the images. Auto makers use the playa all the time in such fashion to promote their goods.

    That’s not what they wanted though. As the cached Silkstone page shows — http://tinyurl.com/7lxm3dk — they wanted to show how cool they were by evoking Burning Man at the top of the page, a page that ironically brags “creates culture” in their header. No, they didn’t create culture, they usurped ours, and we want it back. As one of the thousands of volunteers and a member of one of the larger theme camps, I do what I do before, during, and after TTITD because I love what it stands for, not to help a champagne maker and an events promoter sell their goods.

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  • Bob Stahl says:

    At the risk of sounding as if I’m into in an entirely different event — outside of the porta-potty vendors, NOBODY should be looking to make a living or get recognition as a result of Burning Man. This is an event where everybody is presumed to be an artist/participant, after all. I’d be chasing professional artists, writers, photographers, promoters, deejays and television personalities away with a stick.

    Apparently, that’s unrealistic when so many of our dear, dear friends are art and media biz professionals, who might ply their craft regardless. Maybe the media dept needs to read the riot act to everybody, a little bit louder. Everybody understands money, wrt the immediate consequence of having your Burning Man vacation abruptly shortened, and the longer-term consequence of being publicly identified as scum and having your artist or media card permanently yanked out of the rolodex. Hey, Burning Man is supposed to be hard.

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  • Some Seeing Eye says:

    In my mind the line to commodification is fuzzy. Others have mentioned DJ’s, bands, artists and production companies who have gained momentum from their association with BM. Of course we as individuals do as well. It’s our “personal brand”.

    There will always be participants playing the edge of that line. Krug & Oli clearly crossed the line.

    To me, claims of ignorance and that only one person was responsible sounds like a classic PR play. I’m also not down with the forgiveness-inclusiveness angle.

    Since RV delivery for camps of this scale passes through the vendor system and placement when RV’s are delivered, that is the point of control.

    Camps always have the option to have RV’s delivered after the gate opens and to pay non-vendor drivers to wait in line, then find their camp space in the outlying areas. There would be an advantage to non-placement because they would stand out in the outlying areas.

    Most of these issues are governed by contract law, and a weak implementation of it. Perhaps it is time to require some large scale RV camps to sign contracts and put up a bond.

    I believe Zoo Camp should not be placed (or MV’d) in 2012, and if it has been preticketed, those should be revoked. That would be the best way to communicate to Zoo participants, some who were surely unaware of the issue. They will pass the message to their circles. Some will return, but dispersed, to relate the story to their new campmates.

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  • Anonymouse says:

    Burning Man LLC:

    Where the only one who gets to make money off the event is us.

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  • This is a terrible shame and just plain awful.

    If some folks aren’t going to attend this year because of their awful shame can I buy one of their tickets?

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  • moishe says:

    If you’d like to sign a petition to Krug / Silkstone, here’s one. (via change.org) http://chn.ge/LoQIt1

    I find what they did to be disgusting and destructive of the amazing community that burners have built over the years, both on playa and off. And I believe that if we don’t send a clear message now, as a community, to them and to other advertising agencies, -like BurcherShop Creative (SF), who secretly filmed a beer ad on the playa- it will get much much worse worse.

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  • BeachBum says:

    Thank you, Evil Pippi, for causing this kerfuffle. It was very necessary. Even if a few people went overboard in their emotional responses, it lets the marketeers know what the social media response is going to be to any future marketing attempts on the playa. Any company that thinks about marketing at TTITD will be forced to think twice and pull back from such a bad plan.

    You have the marketeers from the Zoo camp, associated with the marketeers from Stiglitz, LCC, same with PlayaSkool, associated with other Pay & Play camps (google “Stiglitz Burning Man” for info), associated with the exclusive “Krug Champagne” mutant vehicle as one blogger termed it, associated with the horrendously loud “Sticks” mutant vehicle which was a prime cause of the new mutant vehicle sound policy, … Not good.

    For those trying to defend the Krug Champagne and similar stunts by saying others or the LLC do it also, just imagine what the Cacophony Society, from the roots of Burning Man, would do in response to such a stunt on the playa. Or rather, imagine what a hundred Cacophony Society participants emboldened with radical self expression, creativity, and bullhorns would do ;-)

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  • Shtumpi says:

    If you call a place paradise – You can kiss it goodby.

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  • Teo says:

    @BeachBum
    “…imagine what a hundred Cacophony Society participants emboldened with radical self expression, creativity, and bullhorns would do.”

    you can’t compare members of the cacophony society with members of the burning man community. the CS would have fun with the Krug people and playfully prank and nudge them into correcting their behavior so that they can play too.

    members of the burning man community handle things differently. burners are more apt to take bolt cutters to sound systems, threaten violence, use violence, yell and intimidate people they don’t like. basically, burners are complete douche bags who think their shit doesn’t stink.

    very few members of the CS still attend BM – burners have ruined the event for them.

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  • t groan says:

    http://stiglitz.com/arts-and-culture/g360%C2%B0-the-dreamers-camp-burning-man-2012/

    Another step in the commodification of burning man. Without either eliminating or severely restricting the number of RVs this type of exploitation will only continue to grow.

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Hey evil pippi…..

    I’m a Locklear, too. Might we be from the same tribe? Yes, Heather is one.

    Driver @ Wonder Camp

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  • Camilla says:

    I haven’t gone to burning man, but have many friends who regularly attend. I think your blogpost is very eloquent and describes the violation of playa rules and philosophy very well. Would you consider writing a version of it to the New York Times? I think it’s very important that the general public understand that there is an alternate philosophy to the commodification ethos that rules the day out here in the frightening consensus reality we call home. The masses need to awaken, too!

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  • simon of the playa says:

    “very few members of the CS still attend BM – burners have ruined the event for them.”

    Teo, you are so right.

    most of us are stockbrokers now.

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    I have several friends who work in marketing departments, and the Krug/Silkstone project is being discussed and circulated as an example of a wildly successful stealth campaign with minimal fallout/brand damage: everyone is talking about Krug and linking to their Facebook page! Choice quote in one department: “What did Burning Man do about it? Nothing. That’s why everyone’s going to try something similar, smarter, and stealthier next year–four of our clients want to discuss plans to infiltrate Burning Man 2012.”

    Other than this strongly-worded letter, we’re left to wonder what will discourage other companies from doing something similar next year. The Burning Man organization needs to actively enforce the rules and principles it claims are so important rather than giving tacit approval to ignore them in the form of simply denouncing the Krug/Silkstone campaign.

    Zoo Camp, its affiliates, and everyone associated with the plug-and-play camps need to be permanently banned from all future Burning Man events. To do less diminishes respect for the rules and principles upon which Burning Man was founded.

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  • uli says:

    please follow up on carl cox too. making money with a “black rock desert” album? c’mon

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    • Andie Grace says:

      Uli – we don’t own the words “Black Rock Desert,” our related trademark is only for “Black Rock City” — but worth mentioning here is that Cox’s label removed all Burning Man photo/digital book imagery of that project after contact from our IP department, and they did so with remarkable expediency even though the album’s release was sealed and underway. It originally had photos from Burning Man. They were all super nice about complying, as Carl’s experience at the event means a great deal to him and they claimed they were simply unaware of the image restrictions. But the name is an homage to the experience, not a trademark or copyright violation, so there is no further action we could take.

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  • dag Nation says:

    Papillon Says:
    May 17th, 2012 at 11:54 am
    “A lot of queen dramas over here. A majority of people here reminded Oli about the spirit of BM but forgetting that forgiving is also part of the spirit.”

    (checking 10 principles….) nope – nothing about forgiveness there. You must be thinking of another cult.

    We all make mistakes, but an apology means nothing if there is no promise of improved behavior. We take actions and intent and other things into account, not just using the right words.

    The 10 principles are not the 10 commandments, they are ideals to strive for, and at times are mutually exclusive. If one persons “Radical self expression” materially infringes on another persons experience, there is a problem. Leaving a mess to blow around all night long is flagrantly against the ethic of LNT, so protestations that the MOOPing pooper makes about radical inclusion and self expression are empty when they are ignoring community responsibility and other principles. In my world, if you can’t be responsible, you don’t deserve the freedoms that we create.

    Where does that expectation of cart blanch forgiveness fit in our community? It does not, you have to go find another charismatic leader cult for that. You can’t pay Larry for absolution, however you can change your actions and attitude, and improve your relationships that have been damaged by negative, selfish, and short sighted activity.

    We radically include the stranger, and invite them into our community and work to avoid any pre-conceived judgments about the people until we actually interact with them. At that point, if someone is trying to take advantage of our open and trusting community, they can hit the road. Radical inclusion does not mean that we let any abuser run a muck in our community, it means we give every one a chance.

    We then turn to radical self reliance and protect our precious community from the scourge of commodification by telling these people what is wrong and demanding change. We do give people a chance to grow, but if they refuse to be responsible to this community, then in my opinion, they are no longer welcome.

    Zoo camp has demonstrated disregard for our principles, and now is complaining that we are not following our principles while protecting our community. Classic judeo-christian style diverting and blaming, then expecting full forgiveness for saying “I’m sorry, I have Larry in my heart now, I am saved, and you can trust me now”

    Actions speak louder than words – while not being an eye witness to any of this, I do think that Zoo camp and associated groups are treating our community like Disney land, and not respecting the community that we have built.

    I love the burn, but I love the burners more!

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  • Joshua says:

    I agree 100% with everything that was written in this post. But I think BMorg hardly has clean hands here when it comes to Decommodification and Gifting. I mean, at least the Krug people gave their stuff away instead of selling it. You know what I’m referring to, right? Coffee in center camp? Frickin’ coffee. For Sale. In Center Camp. So, you know, remove the beam from your own eye, BMorg.

    Also, did you know that for the low, low price of $500, you can have dinner with David Best and the Temple crew? And for $1000, you can have front-row seating to the Temple burn. Talk about the substitution of consumption for participatory experience, yo.

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  • Some Seeing Eye says:

    Mr dag Nation has a point. Disney is intensely protective of copyright and trademark and would never allow a Krug-like event. Though we (I) don’t support them 100%, we can learn from them.

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  • Peace says:

    I have to say I was there last year and had no idea this went on. It had zero effect on my burn. I understand we wouldn’t want this sort of thing to start becomming the norm. but i also think there might be a danger of the BMorg becomming “The Man” and ad agencies becomming the “creative stealthy rebelious pirates”. If they weren’t stupid enough to leave a mess the only complaint would have been “Burning man got scammed”. I support the idea of decomodification. It’s nice to have an environment free of advertisment but at least this was a creative activity. Some people’s art is breaking rules. If you set-up these rules, people are going to push. I don’t like what Krug did in exploiting the event, but I wish I had the creative team that came up with this working for me.

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Why was Halcyon’s video and blog post deleted?

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  • boomer says:

    @Andie Grace

    “…so there is no further action we could take.”

    too bad you couldn’t invent and inflate figures for some kind of financial damages and have them sent to prison for a couple years… but here’s hoping for the next time.

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  • Uni-Burner says:

    One time at Burning Man I saw Larry Harvey and he just looked so cool in his hat. We went up to him, but didn’t want to bother him and he just sort of gave us that look. You know – that look that he does. Totally awesome. Can’t wait to go home this year!

    @Bob the Burner

    (Because it never happened.)

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Halcyon: given your extensive history of relentless self-promotion and marketing, I’m having a hard time understanding how you could be unaware of Coconut Bliss’s motives.

    Coconut Bliss does not give gallons of free ice cream to everyone, all the time. They gave you free ice cream to distribute at Burning Man, and they posted the times and places their ice cream would be available. Whether they asked you to raise the money for the truck, or if you offered to get the truck and Coconut Bliss gave you free ice cream in exchange is unclear, but in either case, Coconut Bliss got you to take their ice cream to the playa and distribute it to thousands of potential customers, for free, hoping some will take the effort to look up the brand, and buy some later. As Captain Irony and I pointed out, that’s clever and cost-effective marketing.

    I can certainly understand why vegan ice cream and distributing it at Burning Man fits with your world-view and why you don’t consider their motives to be anything but altruistic, but by blithely insisting Coconut Bliss gave away free ice cream just because they’re burners and they love Burning Man you’re willfully ignoring the realities of commerce, business, marketing, and advertising. Think about it.

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  • Evil Pippi says:

    Hey, Bob the Burner– you keep posting rather interesting things. I’d love to chat with you about some ideas brewing regarding this situation. Can you contact me? evilpip@gmail.com

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  • temecula says:

    I agree with Evil Pippi. But the risk you run with these lines of thought, Bob, about how things actually are, is that you will see the event for what it actually is. If you see that, and you are in fact a Burner, you should understand the consequences.

    If you have other Burner friends, they WILL ostracize you if you come out and tell your thoughts to your burner-related associates. So consider the value you place on these relationships. If the value is very high, it’s best to just keep your opinions online and as anonymous as possible – especially if these associations are professional… your job and future prospects could be at risk.

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  • BeachBum says:

    Bob the Burner wrote on May 19th: “Looks like Krug, Fat Radish, Silkstone, Zoo Camp, and Oli have their PR people desperately trying to deflect this.”

    Bob: Given “temecula’s” response above in a classical BS PR lame attempt to shoot the messenger and dampen some of the outrage, looks like you hit the nail on the head again. If people ostracized others for expressing an opinion, especially such a well founded one, we would all be living solitary, lonely lives. Love your analytical approach to this, as well as Pippi’s. Thanks.

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  • Andie Grace says:

    It seems that Halcyon deleted his Video post on this subject. Wasn’t BMHQ.

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  • Captain Oh, The Irony! says:

    If someone has the platform of the Burning Man blog to share their worldview, it’s pretty weak sauce for them to delete posts if they feel that they’re being misconstrued. It’s basically censorship of anyone who participated in any kind of existing dialog in the comments, by removal of their comments.

    As stewards of the written word around the event, I hope someone at BMHQ will let him know that removal of that small sliver of the total corpus of BM lore was not cool and pretty piss-poor netiquette, regardless of how badly he was tanking in the comments.

    I’d hope you’ve had enough “do they not *get* how PR works?” for one year to let that pass without comment. And Halcyon has been on the internet for long enough to know that wiping blog posts from the record is really, really shitty netiquette.

    For what it’s worth, I think the Pink Willy Wonka means well, tries to live it year round, is something of a compulsive self-marketer who at best has a blind spot on this one.

    I think we can all learn a lesson (or at least use a reminder) of how easy it is to fall into the trap of knowing “the rules” and thinking, “what they did over there? Really not OK. That thing I did? Really just a community minded gesture that’s been taken the wrong way.” It’s a self-confirmational bias that runs through life, not just Burning Man.

    With that said, I see that an edited version of his video is up on YouTube with the name of his Frozen Desert Overlords deleted so as “not to confuse the dialogue.” (or perhaps upset his Anonymous Snack Sponsors, who may be surprised to see their name dragged through the dust over this one when all they were trying to do was promote vegan living ideally through repeat purchase of their product within a highly socially-leveraged community….)

    Which kind of suggests to me that he’s still confused as to why that kind of product sampling at scale, however well intended, is still the thin edge of a marketing wedge.

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  • Desert Dog says:

    So much hate and hipocracy in the BM community now it is scary look at what BM has become. What happeed to all the love? Most folks are not perfect or abide by rules. Where’s the forgiveness and educating folks. Burn them,beat them up, get on the table and defecate my goodness.
    How about where is the recreational permit? What is the probation status?
    Will there even be a BM allowed next year? If you are on probation for 2 years BLM can deny the recreation permit.
    You all better cozy up to the indians at pyramid lake the symbiosis was great lots of love,sun,lake grass tree’s. The vibes were healthy full of love and understanding.
    You all sound like a bunch of HATERS. THE TRUTH ALWAYS SHOWS all that bullshit is coming back to haunt BMORG arrogance and stupidity.
    DESERT DOG SPEAKS “SAVE THE PLAYA!”

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  • Chicken John says:

    The BMorg touts these 10 principles and you people buy it. Then people pay their money to come to the event but do something that you all feel is outside of these principles. So you want them to suffer. Sue them. Burn them. Call them names, cost them money. Use your social capitol to hurt them financially.

    Why? Do you only want people who think and behave like you to come to this event? Isn’t this just creating another kind of convention? Isn’t being outside of convention the single factor that we all hold in high regard that makes us a family? Do you really want someone to “get it” the way you “get it” and if they don’t they “don’t get it”?

    I say that if you pay your money, you can go to BM and leave garbage around, if it pleases you. I say you can get drunk and puke on people’s art. Be a nucisance. Sing pirate songs loudly and out of tune at the temple burn. You can. That is an option. It has to be, because if it’s not an option then the experiment in unrestricted generosity is invalid. You must choose to live in gratitude and service. You must chose to be cool and tolerant. You are all getting angry at these Krug people. You should feel sorry for them, that the expericence that you hold so dearly had eluded them.

    But really what I am reading here is that many of you are doing what they did. You are not seeing the bigger picture. You guys are supposed to turn the Krugs into… well, something else. Something else besides people who wanted photos for their product at BM or whatever. This is a great opportunity, and you all are blowing it. You are trying to Control. You should be using Chaos. You want to ban them? What ever for? Breaking the rule? These people are the ones that NEED people like you to pay attention to them. To invite them to parties. To help build stupid shit.

    This thread is totally un-inspiring. Shame on most of you for your gossip and your close-minedness. Do you think that our culture and our event can not survive a few mistakes? That we don’t have systems in place to clean up a little garbage or send out a letter pointing out our photography policy? Do you think that being mean and dismissive to people teaches them a lesson, and makes them nice? Is this your first rodeo?

    Krug champaine is a brand just like The Do Lab. Bass Nector. Opulent Temple. Kinetic Steamworks. Extra Action Marching Band. Booty. Whatever Art Car. People who are popular because of BM throw parties and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Think of the Sea of Dreams New Years eve event. RV rentals. Why can’t Krug use BM to promote their product if Bass Nector can? BM has dj’s. BM also has booze. Bass Nector makes probably $10K to DJ in a big club. The cover of his CD is a photo of him spinning at BM. Why can’t the bottle of champaine be a photo from BM? they are both a product. What about all the clothing design stuff? My pal John Serrigardie makes shade structures. He uses photos of his shade structures at BM to sell them. And he turns a nice profit. No one complains about him. Your argument is thin. To me, anyway.

    you have to give people the benifit of the doubt. Maybe you know something. Someone else doesn’t know it. Yet. Leave a little room. And remember that the 10 principles are a load of horseshit spouted to you from a man who lived his life in books, not here in the real world. Nowhere in the 10 principles does it say anything about the most important thing in life, which is what BM is about: making magic moments.

    Nothing on this thread is making magic moments. So it’s gossip and crap.

    Notice your opinion, then know that that opinion is judgement. Know that judgement is an option, you don’t have to do it. Let it go, and do something better with your time.

    We can all do better then this. I have every confidence that we will.

    chicken john

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  • Linus Minimax says:

    Chicken John wonders: “Krug champaine is a brand just like The Do Lab. Bass Nector. Opulent Temple. Kinetic Steamworks. Extra Action Marching Band. Booty. Whatever Art Car. … Why can’t Krug use BM to promote their product if Bass Nector can?”

    Because of the ratio between what they’ve contributed to BM vs. how much of what they’ve contributed ends up in the promotional pitch. Seems Krug threw one party, which was only experienced as a ‘gift’ by a handful of burners almost as an afterthought, and it’s fair to presume that Krug’s contribution was entirely anticipatory of its later mediated deployment — nothing occured for its own immediacy, whatever Fun was had is stained by the fact that it only existed to be evoked later as hammy hype. Whatever ‘social capital’ that Krug deposited, they withdrew more. They have no Excuses in the Burning Bank.

    Conversely, the EAMB (feat. Dr. Hal) contributed what stands out in my memory as the highlight of ’03’s BRC; if DVDs were for sale, I’d buy one first and wonder whether a line had been crossed later. When I heard about the properly-published-and-pricetagged PissClear book, I didn’t smell sellout or SIN. Did anyone??

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  • simon of the playa says:

    feathers WILL be allowed on the playa this year providing you have enough tar to keep them stuck.

    And Chicken is Pissed because, well, he’s ALWAYS pissed.

    Product is Product is Product….DONT MENTION THE FUCKING NAME IN PLAYALAND™

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  • simon of the playa says:

    oh by the way i trademarked FIRE™ yesterday, and all of you motherfuckers owe me.

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  • roberto dobbisano says:

    “Chicken is Pissed”…

    that’s because he found out you have a higher Klout™ score than he does.

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  • sandstone says:

    “This is a great opportunity, and you all are blowing it.”

    You’re throwing pearls to the swine, Chicken John. You have such an optimistic view of the burning man community, as if you think these pigs can somehow make pearl necklaces using their cloven hooves.

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  • Peace says:

    Thank you Chicken John. What I was trying to say, but you said it much better.

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  • Bob the Burner says:

    Chicken John Says:
    >> “I say that if you pay your money, you can go to BM and leave garbage around, if it pleases you.”

    Oh Chicken John, don’t ever change. Cluck on, you crazy diamond!

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  • Andie Grace says:

    I’m just cut and pasting this from Chicken’s comment because I want to read it again on its own: “If it’s not an option then the experiment in unrestricted generosity is invalid. You must choose to live in gratitude and service. You must chose to be cool and tolerant. You are all getting angry at these Krug people. You should feel sorry for them, that the [experience] that you hold so dearly had eluded them.

    “Do you think that our culture and our event can not survive a few mistakes? That we don’t have systems in place to clean up a little garbage or send out a letter pointing out our photography policy? Do you think that being mean and dismissive to people teaches them a lesson, and makes them nice? Is this your first rodeo?”

    There is more to be learned from exploring the nuances, being generous and talking this through than there is from sarcasm and anger. Let’s not be too quick to the latter at the expense of the evolution of thought and ideas.

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  • sandstone says:

    @Andie Grace
    ” Let’s not be too quick to the latter at the expense of the evolution of thought and ideas.”

    you’re implying that the burning man community is moving forward in some kind of evolution of thoughts and ideas. ‘stasis’ was long ago achieved within this community, and that’s the end of such evolution of thoughts and ideas. now it’s an ideology of sorts – an “ism” of its own, that keeps folding back on itself with the same regular concerns and disagreements as any other ideology. it’s self-contained; nothing new under the sun.

    promoting the so-called ‘culture’ as something moving forward, is disingenuous. to promote it as such, a person needs to explore what the fuck they’re doing, and why the fuck they’re doing it.

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  • Chicken John says:

    Linus Minimax:

    “. Whatever ‘social capital’ that Krug deposited, they withdrew more. They have no Excuses in the Burning Bank.”

    My friend, I disagree with every molecule of my being.

    To me, BM is a dinner. A feast. It’s a giant table that we all sit at. And it’s pot luck. Some people bring roasts, some people bring side dishes. Some bring desert, bread, wine or condiments.

    Some people only bring a fork.

    But we eat all the same. You simply can’t try to keep score. There will always be better and lesser persons then yourself. This is your opportunity for generosity. This is where the rubber hits the road. You want to shut these people out, but they are so close!!!! They need your respect and mentorship. Not your dismissal.

    The Extra Action crew that built that Spanish Gallion (the most beautiful thing ever) also broke the rules. Big time. 3 times I was on that ship. 3 times the people pilioting the craft were on drugs and drinking. They drove that thing at like 40 MPH. They snuck people into the event. They treated the artery and staff like shit. They were horrible. Spoiled rotten art stars who’s shit didn’t stink. They CHARGED PEOPLE MONEY/DRUGS TO CLIMB ABOARD. I watched it with my own eyes. They were so hard to deal with, the staff asked that they not return. They were the most un-burner thing you could ever possibly imagine. They hated all the “burner ethos”, they were totally above it. They did it for the $$$, for the party and for the ego.

    Dr. Hal has never paid for a ticket. He gets free tickets. He’s grandfathered in. He’s my dear friend. But the reason he gets in for free is because he hosts the fashion show. But other people have a much larger contribution, and they dont’ get shit. Why does Hal get special treatment? He hosts a 2 hour fashion show. that’s it. Some people spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours doing stuff, and pay for their own ticket.

    My point is that the people you put on a pedestal may not be as sterling as you might think. And that’s fine. I’m not saying I hate them or want them to suffer… I’m saying that Krug’s offence was small compared to SELLING RIDES ON AN ART CAR. If you detest the Krug scene, I can’t imagine what you think of literally selling rides. They seem a little mis-guided. Whereas the Extra Action people were just fucking jerks.

    But I also want to agree with you, because your point is valid. You were trying to use the word “equity”, but eluded to it rather then spit it out. Equity has been a problem with BM since the git-go. This isn’t the venue to go into the equity conversation, but there are some problems that we can just notice and just in the noticing can be of great benefit.

    I will say that Krug could very well think that $40,000 (what they paid for tickets) and $60,000 (the catering) and $100,000 (RV’s) and $50,000 (extras) could feel like a lot of equity. No matter how misguided.

    And it’s possible that one of them had a magic moment. And that moment changed their life. And it’s possible that that changed life can affect your life. This is possible. You have to find the wins where you can. Nothing is ever a total loss. Of course, this is just my opinon. And in my limited experience being a human, being a BM organizer/participant, being a Showman, a Buddhist and junkie prostitute and an idiot… I find that people are generally better next time.

    You could end up marrying the Krug organizer. That is possible. And very funny.

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  • Peace says:

    @sandstone and Andie Grace

    I agree the principles are starting to be treated as percieved wisdom from on high. The happening needs to be the happening. My understanding is the purpose of the BMorg was to establish some guidelines to keep the burn safe without infringing on people’s creativity or freedom (or as little as possible). Now it seems we are supposed to have a culture which we radiate out into the world. Sounds a whole lot like, “let’s do the same thing over and over again”, which is death to creativity. If this way of thinking were to fully take hold (and sandstone, I don’t think it has, not fully) it would be the death of actual creativity at Burning Man. It would simply become a hallow play. In the end I think the ticket situation this year will be good for the event simply because nobody is sure what will happen. I don’t want to be sure of what will happen at Burning Man. i don’t want to know what to expect. I have to admit, my first reaction when i heard about the Krug “incident” was “good, someone got away with something”. Transgression is an important party of creativity, if you’re coloring inside the lines, you aren’t really being creative. If you are establishing rules for others, you aren’t really supporting creativity. In this year of “Fertility 2” perhaps we should abandon the ten principles for one, “don’t be an asshole” or perhaps we can fertile ground in finding creative ways to breach the priciples (in ways that don’t cause harm to people or the environment).

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  • fireplayer says:

    st curious why Silkstone is still being allowed to promote this aberration in their site. Is BMORG going to call their attorneys and get an injunction or just endlessly rant on this thread? Ugh. Get it together BMORG! Check this out! What the F$%K http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.silkstonenyc.com/food/dinner-in-the-desert/

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  • Rider says:

    CHICKEN JOHN IS JUST SO RIGHT !

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  • Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo says:

    One: Oli gets a pass because it was his “birthday.”

    Two: If you need a ticket, Oli, I have one with your name on it.

    Three: I will be throwing a birthday party for Oli, serving my favorite champagne Krug, and the rest of you JERKS are not invited!!!

    Total Jerk and burner,

    Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo

    ps. You Jerks will be able to see pictures of the party in an upcoming article in Town and County entitled, “Stick this in your 10 principles, JERKS!!!”

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  • Desert Dog says:

    @ Peace well said
    Desert Dog

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  • Dirt Wheel says:

    I think most questions on most of the topics about BM can be answered with “Well, it’s like close to 60,000 people there.” When will we collectively see that there are enough humans together in one spot, to say “This is, just what it is now.” It’s not the end. It’s just the ebb or the flow. Which ever grabs you the most. Be the change you want to see, or not. You have to let people be. So that the magic can happen and lessons are learned. Of course its not what it used to be. Maybe thru this it can get back closer to what it was. Does it need to be 120,000 humans and last a month long to say this place is about spirituality, creativity, generousity, sexuality, pranks, self discovery, blowing shit up. Its about whatever you want it to be. Just dont hurt anyone. The only rule. Be a jerk for a couple of years or many. Educate and they’ll come out of it. That’s what happens at BRC. And hell, its got the word ‘City’ right in the dam name of it. If it was though, 120,000 humans and lasted a month, come for a week or come for four, your call. Would people really be questioning if someone got away with branding an energy drink? Ultimately this is and will have to be about something much bigger than commodification or plug n’ play or or why I dont have a ticket this year. This way, what another camp does do or doesn’t do won’t matter, because your camp is about doing, ‘this’. People are working together to do the bad, accept it, just as people are working together to do the good. It’s closer to the default world than you think. So what. Its most likely been going on since day one of BM. We should be thankful we got this thing to build or destroy. Throw out all the rules and principles and focus on what inspires you towards self discovery thru creativity and generousity. Now, it will be what ever you want it to be. In order for the experiment to move along correctly, things will have to be working in their most perfect order. Which I believe they are.

    We are still doing the experiment, right?

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  • pimppapst says:

    From now on we call’em the Ku Krugs Klan ;-)

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  • CoCo says:

    @pimppapst

    I agree! Krug and their people are even worse than Nazis. Oli is Hitler x 9,000.

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  • Frogbird says:

    Chicken John says, “I say that if you pay your money, you can go to BM and leave garbage around, if it pleases you.”

    I don’t think that paying money has much to do with it, but am interested in discussing the artistic merits of littering and its potential importance to the event.

    I agree that there is merit in coloring outside the lines, breaking silly rules, clever little transgressions, humorous pranks. That is to say, if the Black Rock City police literally threw someone out of the event for getting lost in the moment somewhere and throwing a beer can, it would have a chilling effect on people’s ability to both express and enjoy themselves. On the other hand, someone has to pick up the garbage.

    In any social situation, there are spoken or unspoken rules, sometimes complex, sometimes simple. This is reality. I understand that in BRC the goal is to minimize these rules – especially the unspoken ones, to allow various freedoms. The goal as I understand it is also to be tolerant, as much as possible, to allow people to express themselves.

    I think that the prankster, griefer, or clever transgressor takes a risk of pissing people off, getting fined, asked to leave, or even physically hurt of they really can’t figure out when to quit. If you are going to be a griefer, then you better get used to the fact that you will be called names, disliked by some, and if you don’t know when to stop, forcibly removed from an environment or even assaulted. If you are going to embrace chaos in this way you should not be a baby about it.

    So if it pleases you to fling garbage around, then you cannot really get upset when people run out of tolerance – which they eventually will. Patience is finite. It makes no sense to cry about how people are trying to control you with their rules when in reality they are being the ones constrained to spend their time dealing with the consequences of your behavior. I can try my best to be tolerant, but I am no bodhisattva.

    In any art form, the artist chooses which degrees or freedom to explore, which to constrain, and how to constrain them. Some constraints are visited upon the artist by physical reality, and some by society’s norms. Subverting or enlarging the physical constraints requires cleverness, talent, and skill. Subverting society’s norms can be skillfully done, or you can just blindly annoy the fuck out of people. While the latter is I guess sometimes interesting, it has recently been played out, explored to death, and completely commercialized by MTV.

    Color me unenlightened, but I don’t think that there is anything to be taught to anyone here.

    As far as not hating the clueless members of Zoo camp, I am on board. I would actually be a bit impressed if someone came back to BRC, prepared their own damn food, and freely volunteered the fact that they did the stupid dinner and after reading the resultant shit-storm decided to try it from another angle. On the other hand there is no point in letting people take advantage of your goodwill indefinitely, and I would be pretty vigilant if not outright dismissive of placing anything or inviting vehicles from the same people that just deceived you.

    Sure, I will invite these people to drink box sangria and eat kipper snacks with me while we discuss battery technology, but I sort of expect that they have other slightly more glamorous plans for the evening.

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  • CoCo says:

    @Rider

    “GO back to school stupid prick !”

    i’m not a prick – i’m a feminist. feminists can’t be pricks. fight the patriarchy – cut off penises! kill the male! burning man is cool!

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  • Peace says:

    @Frogbird

    I don’t disagree. I think Chicken John may have chosen a poor example when he suggested throwing garbage around. I think the principle here is, you should be able to do what you want, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences and if you do something that hurts others or the environment, the cosequence might be, you can’t come back. I’m just saying the 10 principles, and peoples attachment to them, are getting in the way sometimes. The one “don’t be an asshole” principle would take care of most problems.

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  • BERGER says:

    THANK YOU CHICKEN , I can always count on you to speak the truth, you pretty much took the words out of my brain.

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  • Another +1 for Chicken John, who is and continues to be, the man.

    We can put Krug, Oli and the Zoo camp into this virtual pillory — but is it going to change anything?

    When it comes down to it, I think it is doubtful that Krug actually sold any more product as a result of this ad campaign. Where are the ads? How does a picture of champagne being drank at burning man inspire people to buy products more than any other ad?

    I think it comes down to a case of using “marketing” as an excuse to use the corporate bank account to finance a party on the playa; and in order to get such financing and avoid shame, they had to be a bit deceitful. But the effects of the ad campaign on the corporate bank account making money doesn’t seem to check out for me — this sounds like it was a big expenditure rather than a profit making campaign.

    However, we see a lot of other shady things happening at Burning Man that we don’t pillory people for — like a certain major Esplanade camp that literally sells land usage rights in their Esplanade space to a camp of rich media executives so they don’t have to deal with registration etc?

    It just sounds like this is the tip of a big iceberg of how the 10 principles get trampled on for one reason: money.

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  • AsOfTime says:

    Poppin’ the top on a bottle of Krug now…Get money bitches!

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  • Lazlo says:

    Oli… I’m just wondering…

    Did anyone have any of the “models” … er… excuse me …. “guests” at the dinner sign a model release? You know, the kind advertising agencies require if they plan to use the photos to “promote” (as in commodify) something… If not, why haven’t they sued for commercial appropriation of likeness???

    Did any of the photographers sign “work for hire” contracts with the add company (or Krug) before presenting their credentials to Media Mecca??? You know… the kind that ALL photographers have to sign when the do commercial shoots for PR companies… If not, why haven’t they sued for copyright infringement???

    What a crock sir! If you, with all your PR connections, and connections to Krug, didn’t know this was BLATANT commodification, and a deliberate attempt to exploit Burning Man’s “cool factor” for someone else’s financial gain (or possibly YOURS???) you are an idiot.

    My main beef with all this is that you … as a “Burner” … allowed the trash to be left overnight. I don’t want to hear the “it was someone else’s job to clean up, so I left” BS… Because YOU should have known that it needed to be cleaned up before the last person left (actually WHILE it was going on!.. as in “don”t let it hit the ground!!!) and YOU – admittedly – were in charge.

    So I think you guys blew it. And – speaking only for myself – I would not be inclined to forgive such a blatant disregard for Playa ethos. You and your crew thumbed your nose at all of us… and you did it deliberately. If I were the Org, you and all the photographers involved, and your entire camp would be permanently banned.

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  • BeachBum says:

    I agree, it is much better to be positive on things, and focus on building things and burning them down, rather than being angry at the trespasses of a few groups. Or, as expressed here, being angry at people being angry, angry at BM in general, being angry at your brand and camp getting a bad name, … But then, anyone who doesn’t like this conversation has the capability to just ignore it and smile in life.

    I like the subtitle to this blog post: “Let us be clear: this is not the kind of marketing activity that raises brand value. Our culture just doesn’t tolerate it, and it often backfires.”

    Backfires? No kidding. The Krug Champagne name is being “krugged on”. And, hopefully, the Zoo Camp and others involved are also being shit on with no consideration for tickets, no placement for them, and no licensing for their bus and their insanely inconsiderate “sticks” sound flatbed.

    The purpose of this blog post is being served – any corporation trying to come to the playa or use BRC for marketing and gaining mindshare of their product or brand should recoil in horror at the negative branding they will experience. And the camp members of any camp that is considering such marketing or branding opportunities will vehemently oppose it.

    Now, back to doing projects for this year…

    (Note: Krug Winery in Napa: GOOD – they have no relation to the $100+ Krug Champagne from France who did this)

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  • Linus Minimax says:

    I disagree that you disagree, Chicken John! I don’t want to “shut them out”; show me a “valid” exception to Radical Inclusion and I’ll show you a failure of Radical Self-Expression. I said as much in my first post above and recommended rants and ritual cursing of the brands involved, but I’m interested in this sentence from the end of the original post:
    “My call to action: If you see suspicious marketing activities like this going on at the event, subtle or not, every participant should feel empowered to contact a Black Rock Ranger or any organizer to report the activity for investigation.”
    It would be easy to snipe at the resemblance to the poisonous paranoia of the Security State, but I think it could be a good idea to run with this, maybe satirically ‘too far’ in the direction of alarmist pamphleting and overzealous-agent roleplay, to explore just how much this kind of ‘marketing’ really is the BRC equivalent of ‘terrorism’, and to what extent it’s worth potentially magic-strangling ‘vigilance’ (uptightness w/r/t the rules) to defend a mostly intangible honour.

    As for the EAMB, what thine own eyes have seen I suffered with my own boozelessness, nearly missing the performance for lack of fair, if not for Dr. Hal’s timely appearance to confirm the invite. Now that you mention it, I remember being vexed by this at the time (especially that Dr. Hal might be resented for inviting everyone in earshot of the CentreCamp stage), but it was overshadowed by the other side of the equity as I was responding before.
    What did NOT vex me was that Dr. Hal had just been exhorting the crowd at length to buy “Bob”!! It doesn’t even seem like a matter of that brand’s successful ‘funny-laundering’ of illicit moneymongering; it feels more like no violation occured. Maybe you agree, since you mentioned the admission-waiving instead. I didn’t really want to emphasize the ‘equity’ metaphor, because the Krug incident feels like a difference in kind rather than degree of violation, but it’s hard to articulate what’s so damaging about their presenting BRC to a semimassmedia audience as just another set to jet to.
    I certainly wish them magic moments. I just know they come in a wide range of bitter flavours, and they’ve set themselves up on the wrong side of the real magic, so if people are outraged and want artful revenge, they should focus their attention on making them wish they’d never gotten Dust on their brand…. NO ONE ESCAPES THE MUNNY’S CURSE!!!

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  • Mark Brown says:

    Hi them where it hurts. Post on your facebook how bad Krug tastes. The cheap over priced swill you will never drink again.

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  • ulonda says:

    @Mark Brown

    since when did burners become liars. krug champagne tastes great. far better tham mumm.

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  • harinama says:

    The more i read these posts, the more i love burners!

    I see a lot of ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM in our support of Black Rock City, and the principles in which WE have decided it is based upon. Burners are not known to sugar coat issues, but dive right in and debate, Thunderdome style.

    Folks have a right to get irate about commercialization.
    Folks have a right to get irate about those who get irate about commercialization.
    Folks have a right to laugh at all of us as hippy losers chasing faded dreams.

    Burning man is about energy and creativity, but it’s also about BLOWIN’ SHIT UP, speaking our mind and telling each other to f-off…! Because we are all burners, from all walks of life, creating a gathering each year that reinforces our core values, and reinvigorates our lives.

    Burning Man is what we make it to be, but only if we are strong in our principles and our intention to have it be so. Sometimes that means a little mud slinging, a few 4 letter words and a lot dialogue. It’s great to see it happening here.

    To those naysayers that proclaim that Burning Man is dead, i’m just glad you won’t be there to see me prove you wrong as I have one HELL OF A TIME!

    I am super excited about the potential craziness this year, it will definitely be one to remember.

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  • Chicken John says:

    harinama, I can’t let you get away with this:

    “and the principles in which WE have decided it is based upon”

    The ten principles are a load of horseshit out of the mouth of ONE man. There is no WE there. Just one guy wrote that steaming pile of shit. You will find that there are much smarter people with much more elegant and sophisticated ideas that are available for you consideration. The guy who wrote that is someone that many people who know him personally feel very sorry for, as he has (has had) the ear of the world, but nothing to say.

    Be careful when you say WE too loudly around him or any of the LLC. They will tell you that you are hard to work with. And you will find yourself losing a lot of that enthousiasm you have…

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  • 4thDegreeBurn says:

    While I do not approve of or participate in sponsored shenanigans on The Playa, I find the quasi-militant response to the Krug story just as abhorrent as the sponsored party itself. Warhol found beauty in Campbell’s soup and Coca Cola. Apparently he would not be welcome on The Playa. Live and let live.

    Burning Man has gotten too high and mighty for its own good. There should be no restrictions on anything except regarding safety and protecting basic human rights. This year they will probably have a legion of goons to enforce their laws. It’s _Animal Farm_ all over again. What a shame.

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  • AnkleBuster says:

    Did anyone ever think how much free publicity this gave Krug Champagne? The share of mind and sales they gain from the publicity will far overshadow the sales lost by Burners who now boycot the brand (did any of them actually buy it before this?). I am not privy to the marketing dept. at Krug, but they must consider this whole project a major success. A good brand is nothing without a band of sworn enemies that are the polar opposite of their real customers. There are probably a lot of 1%ers who are thinking “If a bunch of hippies in the desert hate the Krug brand this much, it must have a lot going for it.”

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  • Rider says:

    Look what I just found on The Fat Radish Fan page :

    MESSAGE FROM PHIL AND BEN OF FAT RADISH / SILKSTONE

    We would like to clarify a few things about our presence at Burning Man in August/September of last year:

    1. Silkstone, our catering company, provided meals at Zoo Camp all week at cost, with members of the camp paying for the food. We didn’t profit from this, nor did anyone else at Zoo Camp.

    2. The kitchen remained open all week, and all Burners – not just members of Zoo Camp – were invited to help themselves at any time.

    3. We did clean up after the birthday dinner held on Thursday, September 1st. We left the table and structure we had built standing until Sunday the 4th, because Burners had started using and enjoying them, and they asked us to leave them.

    4. We continued to clean up the site each morning, and by Sunday had left no trace. That said, we realize now that we did not clean up the site quickly enough to meet Burning Man standards, and we apologize for that.

    We understand and embrace the Burning Man ethos, and we meant no wrong doing.

    Yours sincerely,
    Phil & Ben, Silkstone

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  • Epiphany Starlight says:

    To all you folks getting sooooo upset I would quote our fearless leader who is quoting Emerson,,, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”

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  • Peace says:

    @harinama

    I have to agree with one of Chicken John’s points…who is WE? I’ve only been going to Burning Man for a few years and by the time I started I was simply told to read the principles and follow them. No one ever asked if I agreed with the principles or if I thought there should even be principles. Does radical inclusion include people who don’t think there should be a list of ten principles? On their face the principles seem reasonable and responsible. My only objection is when principles become enforced rules, when burners want to exclude people or string them up for a percieved breach of the “law”. When I first went to Burning Man and came home I found myself in that siutuation everyone finds themselves in when someone asks you, what is Burning Man. The closest I could come to is “Burning Man is a personal experiment in how much freedom you can handle”. So I guess I’m saying I’m fine with principles and guidelines as long as they aren’t rules and laws and as long as they are reexamined from time to time with the input of the community and as long as breaches are delt with using humor and compassion.

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  • AsOfTime says:

    What if burningman did’nt advertise the event,would it still sell 50,000 tickets? So what if a magazine sold some bottles of champagne.Does it really effect your life?No,so get over yourselves
    If anyone is to blame is burningman for setting the bar on advertising and charging outrageous ticket prices. Monkey see monkey do.

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  • Pink says:

    Burning Man doesn’t advertise. And yes, it sells over 50,000 tickets. By word of mouth.

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  • John says:

    Carl Heline Krug Brand Director and responsible for this fiasco should be fired!!!!! Email LVMH to complain —- found their email on the web: jim.clerkin@mhusa.com

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  • AsOfTime says:

    @ Pink… The internet is and websites are not advertisement? What century are you living In?

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  • AsOfTime says:

    @ Pink… The internet and websites are not advertisement? What century are you living In?

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  • Pink says:

    The website is for the dissemination of information, it’s not advertising. This isn’t an event where you just by a ticket and walk in for a few hours; you have to plan, often for months in advance. Unless, of course, you are part of the Krug crowd, where all of the planning is done for you. For the rest of us, this is where you learn about gray water disposal, how much water to bring, that goggles are a necessity, and how to build a swamp cooler from a bucket and a computer fan.

    The Facebook sites are all done by burners, not by the Bmorg. Have you ever been to the Burn? Or are you just trolling? Or do you just fly in to a pre-made camp and have no clue as to how the rest of us plan and burn?

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  • Chicken John says:

    Pink, why do you have so much disdain for someone who flies in and is taken care of? If someone has that kind of money, why would you rally against them? Are you saying that only broke people can really ‘get it’? Are you saying that anyone in an RV isn’t really burning? How about really really nice RV’s? Like mine. I have a nice RV. Maybe I’ve flown to BRC. I get free tickets because I’m famous and my dad works for BRC. Are you going to accuse me of not understanding the concept of an experiment in unrestricted generosity?

    There are many people who buy tickets and show up to walk around for a few hours. There are many people who do not plan for months. Some do. Some people just wing it. Some people micro-manage every meal and every sheet of toilet paper. Who’s right? No one. It takes all kinds. So some people went the Krug way. Others went other ways. You are trying to define good and bad, and I am here to tell you will fail to convince anyone that there is any one way that is better then another.

    The ten principles are a set of ideas. A shitty, boring set of ideas. Some so basic that it’s laughable that we have to endure taking about them. The guidance and stewardship this community needs it will never get with the current leadership. They keep us fighting each other, while they do whatever they want. Hollow heroes. Vapid Cavaliers. We don’t need to attack the Krugs and their party. We need to attack the the vitriol in ourselves that is intolerant of persons lesser then ourselves. And know that our destination is a place where there are none lesser then ourselves.

    This community has a lot of work to do.

    chicken john

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  • Anonymous says:

    Only the Burning Man CORPORATION is allowed to make money on this event. What a bunch of hypocrites. Maybe other corporations are part of the community. Ever thought about that?

    Word-of-mouth IS advertising. Plus I see stick-man bumper stickers all over my community.

    Tens of thousands of people show up and pay hundreds of dollars each to enter, only allowed to spend money at the official BM concession stand. Can you say “fascist monopoly?”

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  • AsOfTime says:

    @Pink…facebook is nothing more than a commercial of someones life.

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  • AsOfTime says:

    Thank you John and Anonymous. Get a clue Pink.

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  • Chicken John says:

    Annonymous, the real marketing/advertising for BM is in the volunteer system. It’s amazing. Volunteers are given buzy work and meaningless jobs disseminating information (greeters), making silly rituals that no one cares about (lamplighters), security positions that everyone detests(rangers), cleaning up garbage (earth guardians) and a list of other ‘positions’ that are just not really needed. Or wanted. There are other paid staff that actually do these jobs, and the pad staff that does the job hates the volunteers. But the volunteers all buy tickets. It’s the core base of the event. Instead of advertising, they went down this road. They have beer and pizza parties for the volunteers and meetings ans stuff… make everyone feel important. But it’s just buzywork.

    It’s a marketing system. That they just broke with the ticket fiasco that any person who ever threw an event could have told them was going to happen. I explained it to them, did they listen to me the guy who has never been wrong? No. Of course they didn’t. I get inspired that they want to make so many bad descions… it makes me hopeful that they want to do it all the wrong way so that they can become smarter. Then I remember they are really really old… and not going to be here long enough to impliment all these lessons they are learning. They are just short of retirement. Mid-50’s to late 60’s. It’s over for them.

    And it seems like that are poised to kill this thing before they leave. It won’t matter. We’ll pick up whatever pieces are left and build something better. Give ’em something to be bitter about.

    chicken john

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  • Larry Harvey says:

    In the post that initiated this discussion, my good friend Evil Pipi says, “Some people just don’t get it. It is sad and upsetting for Burners when brands ignore our cultural expectations and try to pull marketing stunts on the playa, and worse yet when they pretend it’s not happening”. Any community has two ways of dealing with such affronts to a shared ethos: shaming and shunning. Were I to attend a funeral and laugh and speak loudly during the funeral oration, I suppose people would shame me; they’d shush and they’d glare. Were I to make a pass at the departed’s widow, I am equally sure I would be shown the door.

    Likewise, at our event, if someone throws a spent cigarette to the ground, their friends will probably tell them this is thoroughly uncouth. If not a cardinal sin, it is most certainly a social blunder – the offender will be shamed. If that person brazenly persists, the social consequences will increase: he or she will probably be shunned. I really do not think this process is inherently invidious, nor do I think it demonstrate a lack of tolerance or love: it’s how communities self-regulate without recourse to formal rules or punishments. This discussion proves that we inhabit a community. It is also proof that we are parties to a culture.

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  • Chicken John says:

    No no no. Larry, it’s always you who is the one who doesn’t get it. Shaming and shunning are consequences. It’s the fist instead of the open hand. It’s how YOU do things. But not how smart, effective leaders do things. You love it when we eat each other alive. You never intervene and make peace. You just sit on the sidelines and let us battle it out. This “culture” that we are a party to would be so much better if there was a true visionary leader in front of us leading a charge: “To there!!!” she/he would shout and we would all go to the ‘there’, and we would be together.

    Because together, we are unstoppable. To date, the only thing that has unified this community is conflict. Because we have no visionary leader. It that sucks so bad it makes me wanna cry because there is nothing any of us can do.

    This community needs a leader that will offer a constitution. With voting rights. The events need to not be open to the public. They need to be private, members only events that you have to have equity in an actual community to attend. These ideas time has come. Please stand aside and be the good guy. For once.

    with respect,
    chicken john

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  • AsOfTime says:

    @Chicken John… sounds like a goverment to me with Jesus in charge…?We all know that can’t be good.

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  • AsOfTime says:

    @Pink… And I couldn’t care less about building a swamp cooler from an old computer …wtf?

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  • AsOfTime says:

    Man fuck all this …where’s the Budweiser tent at?

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  • ulonda says:

    Larry Harvey wrote:
    “It is also proof that we are parties to a culture.”

    burning man is a hardly even a community any more, and certainly it is not a culture.

    fostering the implication that BM is a counter-cultural movement is a lie that traps many would-be counter-culturalists into volunteering their money and labor into contributing to the event.

    the true counter-culturalists left this mess in the desert a long time ago, and Larry and friends are still tyrannizing this counter-culture that it continues plagiarize for profit – totally commodifying it.

    SHAME on them!

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  • John says:

    Boycott KRUG and fire Carl Heline US Krug PR guy – I was at Burning Man and he orchestrated all of this !!! Email LVMH to complain jim.clerkin@mhusa.com

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  • Rider says:

    I keep on thinking that this CHICKEN is very WISE ! Thank you Chicken John for putting some lights over this messy argumentation.

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  • floyd says:

    Chicke John:

    “This “culture” that we are a party to would be so much better if there was a true visionary leader in front of us leading a charge: “To there!!!” she/he would shout and we would all go to the ‘there’, and we would be together.

    Because together, we are unstoppable. To date, the only thing that has unified this community is conflict. Because we have no visionary leader.”

    What the fuck are you talking? Seriously, man… WTF.
    I would very much like to counter your imbicile statements but I’m
    NOT EVEN GOING TO RESPOND TO THAT KIND OF NONSENSE.

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  • floyd says:

    just surprised to read such fascist comments here, that’s all.
    (and if there’s one thing the eplaya/blog comment crowd unites, then it’s epic drama.)

    BM IS DEAD! LONG LIVE BM! – remember? DADA!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7QspfFDdmU

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  • Chicken John says:

    Floyd, I have been here a long, long time. I tell you will all certainty that the only thing that has ever united this community is conflict or when this community had to come together to defend itself.

    If you will not respond to my “nonsense” here, where ever is the right venue to discuss ideas? Maybe you can do what Larry can not, and tell us what his “vision” is leading us to.

    Ten years ago we were told, and I quote: “We are now in stage 2 of my 3 stage plan to spill onto a world stage.”

    Larry has had all the opportunity and all the juice anyone could ever need to “spill onto a world stage.”. We were all duped. He was bluffing. He has no plan, save to keep the event going. That’s it. His plan is to keep everyone “on board”, waiting for this amazing thing that is going to happen… you can feel it, can’t you? It’s just around the corner…

    Horseshit. The only thing coming is higher ticket prices. Period.

    The regionals? You gonna tout that the regional are “spilling on a world stage”?

    Bullshit. The people throwing regional events were going to throw events anyway. BM didn’t turn those people into connectors. They were connector people who came to BM.

    Opportunity after opportunity for great leadership bombards this event. And the LLC blunders and flails about like a bunch of hillbilly’s who just found a suitcase filled with money. They so poorly manage the budget and other resources it has become a culture of waste and opulence.

    You know they rent EVERYTHING. Why? Because they can’t be bothered to build a system where they can trust anyone with tons of equipment. So they pay MORE to rent something then it would to buy it BRAND NEW. Why? Why would they do that? because it’s easy. And if there is one thing for sure, if given the option of easy or hard, they chose the easy way. EVERY TIME.

    Take this contriversay. Larry picks the easy way. Larry chimes in and talks about Shame and Shun, and props up the person who is the most popular in the argument: Pipi. But had the argument been going the other way, he’d flip flop like a flopping flipper and have equally elegant prose about how Krug really didn’t do anything wrong and how we should stingy with our judgement and then flip the conversation to something about him and how wise he is. Then he would probably add something about social capitol, because he read that book Bowling Alone, and he mimics it like a friggin’ magpie.

    He actually never has an opinion about anything. He write in such a way that it could be construed one way or another. You might not see that. You might see it just one way. Which is my point. If you are attuned to his horseshit, you can easily see through it. We are very attuned. Very soon, we will not have a LLC. Or so they promise. The question is, how much will that cost us?

    And if we pay more, can it please happen faster?

    chicken john

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  • Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo says:

    Chicken John used to sound like an alright guy. Even made some sense. But after his last few comments, he has a lot on this thread topic, he is sounding more and more like a JERK. Get over yourself and be a little bit less jerky. There’s your conflict, now we are united. Cheers, Krug for all!

    Total jerk and burner,

    Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo

    ps. Cram it up your cramhole

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  • floyd says:

    “We are now in stage 2 of my 3 stage plan to spill onto a world stage.”

    Well, it’s world famous alright. Millions of people know about it, it’s legendary. It has literally touched hundreds of thousands of lives and often changed something about those people. So why does it need to be grander by now?

    Basically it’s just a huge get together in the desert. Surrealistic absurdity, infinite fun and fantastic beauty. If you can accuse Larry of something, than maybe exactly THAT he made a statement like the above. Larry’s “lack of leadership” is the best thing of all. Why does it need to be so huge and relevant and international? Why make it bigger than it is? Thank god it’s not a religion, not a political movement. He’s not “keeping everyone on board” – people are coming back themselves. Why are you still here? Why do you care?

    “…the only thing that has ever united this community…”

    Again; why be united? What good does come from this? Why unity?

    “BM didn’t turn those people into connectors. They were connector people who came to BM.”

    Excatly! So why is this a problem? Why would BM need to be the force to turn people into something? BM is no one. It’s everyone. It’s a canvas. It’s an enabler. A yes-sayer.

    “And the LLC blunders and flails about like a bunch of hillbilly’s who just found a suitcase filled with money. They so poorly manage the budget and other resources…”

    Sure, there’s something like burner-romanticism, where everything seems more perfect and beautiful than it is. BM has it’s problems and I’m sure there are things going on that are absolutely wrong. I’m sure there are also some incompetent people in charge; corrupt people. There’s sleaze like there is everywhere. Something like a burner-elite has formed. Naturally. “The ones in charge”. That’s human. That’s just so fucking normal. Altough BM is not really comparable to anything, I just never expected things behind the curtain NOT to be like this. It’s still PEOPLE. (I understand your disappointment though.)

    “He [Larry] actually never has an opinion about anything.”

    I say: why should we care what Larry or anybody else has to say about BM? Larry started it, back in the days, and I’m very grateful for that! For that moment he did whatever it is he did. And for the people pushing it after that initial point. But from there on out there’s NO ONE to thank or listen to. It’s the enity of it all that makes BM what it is. It’s something different for everyone and yet, somehow there are intersections. Nobody can or should give you an integral definition of what BM is. It’s not intended. (Somehow reminds me of dada.)

    Whatever it is, it’s out there and you can’t call it back. The thing itself will maybe die. Or it won’t. We’ll see about that. But whatever happens, whatever it becomes – it’s been a great experience up until now.

    I loved it and still love it.

    BM IS DEAD! LONG LIVE BM!

    jolifanto bambla ô falli bambla
    grossiga m’pfa habla horem
    égiga goramen
    higo bloiko russula huju
    hollaka hollala
    anlogo bung
    blago bung
    blago bung
    bosso fataka
    ü üü ü
    schampa wulla wussa ólobo
    hej tatta gôrem
    eschige zunbada
    wulubu ssubudu uluw ssubudu
    tumba ba- umf
    kusagauma
    ba – umf

    )'(!

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  • simon of the playa says:

    Altamont.

    Nuff Said’.

    now where is the $500 of Krug we were promised?

    shit’s gonna get ugly if we arent paid.

    Report comment

  • Pink says:

    @AsofTime: you might want to construct a swamp cooler since its a great way of keeping your tent/yurt/van/RV cool without running a noisy, fume spouting generator 24/7. Not that I’m totally against generators or RVs or anything else. But I am about consideration for your neighbors, and not running a genny if you dont have to is being considerate.

    I’m not against RVs (I have a frikkin camper-van with fridge, bath, & stove) or people flying in if you happen to have a plane, but I do believe in self reliance and think if your ‘burner experience’ is simply showing up and being catered to, you are missing the point of the experience. Growth happens from testing one’s limits and building SOMETHING, not from bringing defaultia to the playa.

    I also believe the world needs more adults, not infants or toddlers in adult bodies. Infants need to be taken care of 24/7. Toddlers believe themselves to be the center of existence-me first! Adults take care of themselves, and cooperate to share strengths, since every adult does not have the same skills. Burning aids one in becoming an adult while reawakening a sense of wonder in the world.

    YMMV.

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  • Pink says:

    Oh, and any of you who think that was actually LH posting above, and not a troll, is truly naive.

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  • jacob bunny says:

    @Pink
    “I have a frikkin camper-van with fridge, bath, & stove”

    thanks, we really enjoy cleaning up your oil spills after you’ve taken off sunday morning. keep up the good work!

    Report comment

  • Dramaddock says:

    As a table waiter / bartender, I will be recommending against Krug products at every opportunity.

    Report comment

  • Pink says:

    Fuck off, my van doesn’t leak. And since I leave Tuesday, I’m more likely to be cleaning up after your ass.

    Report comment

  • AsOfTime says:

    @Pink…try primitive camping like myself then get back to me. Air condition, really? …. Laughable.

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  • floyd says:

    wow, what’s with the fascist comments around here?

    “look at me, look at me! i’m sleeping in a tent! i’m way more cool than you! i’m a real burner!” do you realize how close minded this kind of behaviour is?

    air conditioning, no air conditioning, van, car, rv, tent, large camp, small camp, 9’oclock, 3’oclock… whatever man. it’s everybody’s own choice. shouldn’t concern you. at all. so dont bother.

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  • jacob bunny says:

    @floyd

    “do you realize how close minded this kind of behaviour is?”

    you’re sooo 1%

    Report comment

  • floyd says:

    what’s the connection there? :) dude, so far i’ve camped in a tent and in an rv. both have pros/cons. as long as you dont spill your greywater and leave your trash behind it does not matter.

    both can either look unoriginal and ‘normal’ or fancy and creative. both can be loud and disturbing or quiet. both can leave waste behind. both can spill greywater. and so on. depends on what person you are.

    energywise: i give you that. running an A/C in the desert is… well, you know ;)

    would be interesting though to investigate the direct pollutant emission of BM -> RVs vs. fire art vs. external generators

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  • simon of the playa says:

    stop picking on floyd, he cant help it, he’s obviously Canadian…

    (BehavioUr)

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  • floyd says:

    haha, well… i could be british. but it’s neither one. it’s the land of milk and chocolate.

    (we’ve got all the gold and peace and freedom and filthy rich banks you could ever want. soooo 1% – no, wait… more like 0.1%! haha, take that, suckers! i’m so gonna run over your crappy little tent with my HUGE RV and spill all my greywater right in your face!! if there’s one thing i hate it’s poor people. poor people and animals. oh, and kids. ;D)

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  • AsOfTime says:

    @ Floyd…Don’t forget to pick up pink so you could at least carpool.

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  • Frogbird says:

    This conversation has digressed completely due to Chicken John’s obvious and classic strawman argument. Pink wrote:

    “This isn’t an event where you just by a ticket and walk in for a few hours; you have to plan, often for months in advance. Unless, of course, you are part of the Krug crowd, where all of the planning is done for you.”

    Whether or not you agree with Pink, her argument is that one should not have all of your planning for Burning Man done for you. Chicken John responds:

    “Pink, why do you have so much disdain for someone who flies in and is taken care of? If someone has that kind of money, why would you rally against them? Are you saying that only broke people can really ‘get it’? Are you saying that anyone in an RV isn’t really burning? ”

    Notice that he is suggesting new arguments, that Pink has a problem with rich people, or with people who come in RVs. Pink never said or suggested anything like this, Chicken John is just forming this new association and then arguing against it, rather than attempting to refute the actual argument. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawman

    If the rule in BRC is that there is no vending, and if that is at the core of the event as much as anything can be, than it seems strange that there are many camps that sidestep this by offering full service packages that are prepaid before the event, and then the service is completed during the event. This is still vending, just prepaid. Moreover, it is of interest that this sort of package appears to be generally quite expensive and exclusive, and is therefore only available to the wealthy and connected.

    I don’t want to set up another strawman, but I would be interested in hearing an argument that this sort of camp does not effectively constitute vending. Under the assumption that this is vending, Chicken John’s argument that there is no definition of what is good and bad in BRC would suggest that prepaid vending is as much in the spirit of the event as anything else.

    It is hard to get enthusiastic about that. I don’t offer any suggestion of what to do about exclusive prepaid vending, if anything. There is reasonably broad agreement that several voices in this thread have gone overboard in their anger and criticism of Zoo. To fully embrace exclusive prepaid vending as just another way to do it is to me just an overreaction in the other direction, and appears to be just an excuse to criticize the current leadership.

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  • gardarob says:

    Just adding my thoughts to this. I wonder if it would seem less gross if the organizers had just made it a “private party.” I know inclusion is the crux of Burning Man but of course private “events” sometimes happen among friends. Krug could have organized it in such a way (sneakily, yes) that the guests would have been specifically invited – I’m sure they could have located 12 or 14 people who would be down to participate in something like this. There are many ways they could have approached it.

    Yes, in the end, you would have product placement and commodification and corporatization. But the thing that makes it so revolting to me is that they staged it on the open playa, invited people to go under false pretenses, registered the photogs under false pretenses, ignored the terms of the media paperwork, and generally acted like scumbags.

    It’s unavoidable, in my opinion, that some clever PR flaks will use Burning Man for material. But to do it in such an underhanded way – pretty horrible.

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  • Pink says:

    I’m already carpooling. And my van doesn’t have a/c-well it does but it doesn’t work. I was talking about how to build a swamp cooler; I guess roasting in a tent is so much burnier? One of my campmates suffered severe dehydration after crashing in her tent last year and sweated out all of her water. And the tent was within our shade structure.

    Oh, and I was primitive camping long before AsOfTime likely was born. My propane fridge leaves a smaller carbon footprint than the giant refrigerator trucks that bring ice to the playa. It’s all relative.

    I’m not a 1%-er. I came on this thread to protest against those that frequent a concierge camp, and AOT pilloried me for that. Now I’m being pilloried for not camping in a tent with a few MREs out in the walk-in area.

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  • Peace says:

    If you can have air conditioning and you don’t you aren’t more hardcore…you’re an idiot. This isn’t Navy Seal school and it isn’t hippyfest, it’s a creative arts happening. Suffering with the heat has nothing to do with the goals of the event. I don’t recall heatstroke as one of the 10 principles. I build a house at burning man. I designed it myself. Cost about $500. I salvaged many of the pieces. The house has a regular door, double pane windows, and AIR CONDITIONING. Again, BECAUSE I’M NOT AN IDIOT. Well I may be an idiot, but not about that. I don’t RV because I can’t afford it. I don’t begrudge those who do. I would if I could. Sounds like a whole lot of jealousy disguised as burner purity. There are creative ways of getting air conditioning without spending a lot of money. You should try it.

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  • some seeing eye says:

    Let me just say that I appreciate CJ’s insights. But where is this discussion going?

    BM needs some visioning on where it is going, particularly after the transition to a nonprofit and in light of enduring ticket shortages, even in the regionals.

    Pointed sniping at BM’s past/current flaws, personalities and limitations is not visioning.

    BM has successfully attracted creatives, and this can only expand internationally. It is tempting, even natural, for creatives to repurpose BM in their professional projects. PnP presents a special challenge, because those participants can more easily experience the event more distantly. And with a more diverse expanding set of participants, how are the conflicts between those natural tendencies and BM’s undetermined future path communicated?

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  • AsOfTime says:

    Oh the comforts of air condition while drinking b-list champagne with hints of home cooking around a table next to a garbage fence while thinking about making a swamp cooler from an old computer with a guy I carpooled with. Sounds like a great time, you guys have fun.

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  • jacob bunny says:

    @Peace

    if you want to cheat, no one is judging you.

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  • jacob bunny says:

    @Pink

    go ahead and think you’re hardcore, it doesn’t matter what other people think.

    Report comment

  • John says:

    Carl Heline Krug PR asshole guy and responsible for this fiasco should be fired!!!!! Email LVMH to complain —- found their email on the web: jim.clerkin@mhusa.com

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  • Peace says:

    @ Jacob Bunny

    Cheating? Please explain.

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  • Peter Durand says:

    ‘how are the conflicts between those natural tendencies and BM’s undetermined future path communicated?’

    Expand, explain please. Not sure I understand what you mean by ‘those natrual tendencies’. Thanks

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  • Tits McGhie says:

    If only the Slug had got there earlier, with a permanent marker and changed all the labels to say SLUG, now thats a party I would go to!! All hail the SLUG!!

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  • some seeing eye says:

    Quote:
    Peter Durand Says:
    May 29th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
    ‘how are the conflicts between those natural tendencies and BM’s undetermined future path communicated?’

    Expand, explain please. Not sure I understand what you mean by ‘those natrual tendencies’.

    In the professional creative community personal and professional brand are highly intermixed. And there is no longer any downside to reputation in any profession to participate in BM. So there is a natural tendency for people to promote themselves and professional projects by their association with the event.

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  • Linus Minimax says:

    PINK,
    You said:
    “I’m already … my van … I was talking about … One of my campmates … I was primitive … My … I’m not … I came … and AOT pilloried me for that. Now I’m being pilloried for not camping in a tent with a few MREs out in the walk-in area.”

    The only thing you ought to be pilloried for is posting primarily about what you’re being pilloried for, without plugging your private peeve into a more properly public grievance. Spare us the protest, Pink!

    FLOYD,
    You raise an important ‘point’lessness, but last thing’s first: I don’t think The Man’s head should be an apostrophe — it shouldn’t be asymmetrical. My first thought was an asterisk: )*( , and since the legs are so appropriate (‘bracketing out’ the Default World), it could work as a [BLANK] that refers you to the margin or densely-populated-‘bottom’/rim of the ‘page’ to fill in its meaning. But I guess it has to look right…. has this debate happened already or does no one care??

    ‘The Man’ is a [BLANK]……….. I’m just going to let that stand for absence of a long rant on the importance of headlessness (or maybe Facelessness?), and instead (to prod us back in the direction of the original topic):
    Isn’t it MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER for Burning Man to be somewhat militant about decommodification, as an antienvironment to the new environment of corporate legal personhood?? Isn’t it crucial to insist that corporations are not welcome (nor their “gifts” recognized as such, re: the newer decommodification blog post video about “thanking” a legal ghost for the vegan ice cream) because they are NOT PEOPLE????

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  • Linus Minimax says:

    Oh, come on, right at the line break?

    I mean: )*( rather than )'(

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  • AsOfTime says:

    Pink if you been primitive camping since before I was born you need to change your name to “Roast Beef Brown”…cause you are as old as the dirt in the desert.

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  • simon of the playa says:

    im dustier than you are, neener neener poo poo.

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  • John says:

    What Krug Champagne did at Burning man is unacceptable. Please sign the petition to boycott Krug and their PR manager Carl Heline: http://www.change.org/petitions/krug-champagne-stop-using-burningman-to-promote-your-products
    Please complain to LVMH: jim.clerkin@mhusa.com. Let’s get to 1,000 names!!!

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