Business sense of the McCs.

I did no less than two short business courses on how to set up your own business and it occurred to me that Gerry in particular has shown amazing acumen, certainly for a medic.

Protect your copyright, register your invention as a trade mark.

Linking: link your products to something already in the customers' mind: e.g.
Using Celtic colours for the quality wristbands. Football club is getting free publicity and get them to reciprocate.
Using or creating photographs of Maddie wearing football t shirt, jogged the memory of the public: the Soham murders.
This also links the product to the football club.

USP: Unique Selling Point: well, the coloboma girl for one. The story itself for another.


Publicity/advertising: keep a high profile in the press and other media. All publicity generates interest. Engage your customers with your product, so that they will recommend it to their friends and family.
Decide on your target market: which demography is most likely to buy your product. (initially tabloid readers) Create a narrative for the advertising, e.g. innocent victim, evil men, wicked policemen and brave parents. As in most fairy tales, evil is defeated, but this is pantomime and the public has to take part to bring about a happy ending. 'Look behind you!'

Create both short range and long range plans with intermediate close-spaced advertising campaigns.

And so on - gosh, they could have done a deal with the Cuddle Cat manufacturers and made a mint out of that too!

tigger wrote:

And so on - gosh, they could have done a deal with the Cuddle Cat manufacturers and made a mint out of that too!

A good post but please don`t give them any ideas, else we will all be spending the run up to christmas queing up outside Argos in the hope that we can get our hands on that most wanted toy, the singing, dancing cuddlecat, all proceeds to the McCann fund.

sharonl wrote:

tigger wrote:

And so on - gosh, they could have done a deal with the Cuddle Cat manufacturers and made a mint out of that too!

A good post but please don`t give them any ideas, else we will all be spending the run up to christmas queing up outside Argos in the hope that we can get our hands on that most wanted toy, the singing, dancing cuddlecat, all proceeds to the McCann fund.

Please feel welcome to whoosh it, I wouldn't put it past them, Gerry really missed his calling by becoming a mediocre medic.

tigger wrote:I did no less than two short business courses on how to set up your own business and it occurred to me that Gerry in particular has shown amazing acumen, certainly for a medic.

Brilliant, Tigger. I think he based it on the Chinese business model where crisis = opportunity

I thought they did register cuddlecat?

tigger wrote:

sharonl wrote:

tigger wrote:

And so on - gosh, they could have done a deal with the Cuddle Cat manufacturers and made a mint out of that too!

A good post but please don`t give them any ideas, else we will all be spending the run up to christmas queing up outside Argos in the hope that we can get our hands on that most wanted toy, the singing, dancing cuddlecat, all proceeds to the McCann fund.

Please feel welcome to whoosh it, I wouldn't put it past them, Gerry really missed his calling by becoming a mediocre medic.

No, I won`t whoosh it. We shall have to compete by peddling springer spaniels.

Your spot on with his marketing skills, Gerry McCann said: “We thought it was possible that publicising her coloboma could harm Madeleine. Her abductor might do something to her eye. But in marketing terms it was a good ploy”.

I'm trying to get a publicity timeline together, this is mainly because I was so surprised to find that the Belfast Telegraph had an article on the 11th of May, complete it seems, with quite an erroneous history of the family McCann in Donegal. It makes them look far more connected than is actually the case.

I also noticed the similarity of phrases used by Aunty Phil and the so called family and friends in Donegal. See also the Donegal topic, from which I'm going to filch one or two posts.

Point is: publicity was prime objective:
Sky news: when?
12.01 on 4/5? Telegraph online
Tabloids such as DM, DMi, Sun etc. ? 5/5? with full stories?
Belfast Telegraph 11/5, must re read article, but think request of donations?
Local Leicestershire papers? when was the collecting box set up?
Leicester Glenfield Hospital had a collection box in reception? Quite early, within days I think.

It's just that going for Belfast (and I'm still sure those two photographs were rigged, imo Maddie's body is the same size as Sean, hence the idea that the twins were big, it's Maddie who's small) - so soon and with the hint of a long and strong family connection there, seems a little early. Unless Belfast T. was alerted, I hardly think they were going round N. Ireland to see where the connections were.

So was there a list of newspapers and such to be given the story via the then 'spokes people', namely Aunty Phil and Uncle John?
Because the above mentioned were the ones with the stories on the cuddle cat and ledge, the jemmied shutters, all repeated by the first reports in the papers.
So did Philomena and John have a list of telephone numbers to ring? Or were they given one by Kate and Gerry?
Surely the newspapers wouldn't aim for the extended family first, but for the actual parents?

This is a re-post of research by The Truth will Out and Daisy on the Donegal topic. I'm including it here because this marketing and the very early imo photoshopped photos of Easter 2007 are red flags to me.


Re: McCanns Easter break Donegal 2007
Daisy on Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:09 pm

TheTruthWillOut wrote:
So reading these part's of the history of Joe's
Bar, it really doesn't seem to ring true to me. Like the McCann's and
the Tapas 7, it is full of inconsistencies.

Joe’s Bar, St
Johnston belongs to Madeline McCann’s grandmother, Eileen McCann. On
the early hours of St Patrick’s Day, 2008, the pub was raided for the
12th time. The thieves rammed in the back door of the pub and took all
the stock they could get barring a bottle of gin. They turned on the
beer taps to let the beer run out. Joe discovered the damage and the
back door lying in the garden when he checked on the pub after 7.30 am
Lenten Mass. Eileen McCann was the wife of the late John and they ran
the pub under the name of McCann’s Bar and there was a living quarters
then above the pub. They decided to lease it to Joe 27 years ago. Mrs
McCann had been in the area and visited the pub at the weekend. The pub
had been ram raided in November 2007 when Joe was in the hospital at
the time. After that incident, a steel security door had been put up.


The pub had been raided 12 times!! Ok. Have the other
pubs had a similar problem? Seems a bit excessive to me. Reads more like
a grudge attack?

Joe people's believed a car rammed the back gate. Looking
at Google Streetview, I can only find one shop with access to rear by
car on Main street. The Pharmacy. And there is no door for a car to ram.

It states that Joe leased the pub 27 year ago. That makes it at least 1981. But...........The Belfast Telegraph states this:

Joe Peoples, who took over the pub after Gerry's parents, Johnny and
Eileen, moved away to start a new life in Scotland in the mid-
1960s


I'm assuming "took over" means "leased". That is a 15 year inconsistency


I think it's disgusting and criminal how the good folk of Ireland have
been lied to and manipulated into handing over donations to the McCanns.
This whole Donegal tale seems to have been weaved in order to endear
the McCanns to the Irish public.

I found this video and transcript courtesy of Bren Ryan on her 'Regrets
& Ramblings' site, although I'll not thank her for it because she's
perpetuating the blatant lies and propaganda. Here's a couple of quotes
from a McCann interview shown to Irish viewers on Ulster TV News. It's
well worth reading the whole article to see what a sham it is.


Sharon O’Neill (presenter) The Mccanns have close links to Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Gerry’s father Jack went to school in Londonderry but he grew up in the
village of St Johnston just over the border in Donegal and he ran this
pub with his wife Eileen up until he died. St Johnston became a retreat
for Gerry, Kate and their young family and people here feel they have
been badly left down.

LIES! He did NOT run the pub until he died. It's widely reported they
left Donegal in the 1960's and moved to Scotland! St Johnston was NOT a
retreat for the McCanns. They even admit themselves it was the first
time Kate and the children had ever visited. Even the shady Joe Peoples
tell us: "I have met Kate the once and Gerry twice"

How do they get away with this?

UTV NEWS NOV 3RD (1) – MCCANNS

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_____________________

Re: McCanns Easter break Donegal 2007
quote Daisy
snipped

What I don't get about the Donegal holiday is: if there were so many "extended family & close friends" gathered at that Easter break (also the anniversary & annual pilgrimage of Gerry's father John's death, according to Joe Peoples that is) why isn't there more photographic evidence? Such a massive gathering and no shots of Madeleine (or her siblings) with anyone else apart from the same two cousins as always: Fiona & Gregor. Where's the pictures of Madeleine with the rest of the family! THREE generations gathered? Granny, Aunts, Uncles, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, etc.. Yet only 3 photos of Madeleine (with same cousins as always). Surely, if this holiday really took place (like they say) there would be LOADS of photos? If these photos exist they are some of the last ones taken of Madeleine before she disappeared; they are vital!
unquote

Tigger
This site has a great news index by month and shows all the coverage right from 3 may.

what is strange is that there was a lot of coverage in the Belfast telegraph in may but this isn't in the index . It is there in June 2007 but not may , which of course had the Donegal photos. makes me wonder if it really was from may 07.
The birthday cake photo makes a very early appearance on 6 may so the family must have released this one to the press pretty sharpish



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I just feel that someone close to Gerry has considerable 'product placement' experience.

The Donegal myth above is a good example. It seems there is the most tenuous of connections with the Kate and Gerry, who'd not been to Ireland before Easter 2007.
The publicity supports a sort of Hollywood style family 'tribe' who're always there for each other etc. etc. Cue 'Danny Boy' and off we go.

The reality supplies us with two very puzzling photographs of the twins with their cousins - Uncle John lives in Donegal? - . I keep hammering away at this, but having spent hours on these two photographs, it simply Maddie's face pasted onto a younger girl's body. Hence the size discrepancy. The twins aren't too big, Maddie's body is almost the same size as Sean. The date bothers me a lot: published on the 11th May.


So was Easter 2007 already earmarked as a useful publicity stunt? Note that the blurb says strong connections with Northern Ireland and the Republic.

I propose a person familiar with photoshopping may have done these all in one go. Perhaps a timeline of the released 'suspect' photographs would be useful.
Then the sequence would be?

title released
poster girl 3-4/5 coloboma added, face bleached, eyelashes etc, nose made smaller.
tennis girl ? possibly head is pasted on, in other thread poster states tennis court surface not in PdL
Donegal rock photo 11-/5 Maddie not engaged with cousins or twins, r. hand very strange, head positioned too far right. Body too young.
Icecream photo Donegal, cone held very strangely, upright doll like pose, not engaged with surroundings.
Poolside ? Only surfaced after Gerry's first trip to the UK, end May.

Since IMO the poster girl must have been photoshopped in the UK, prior to the holiday, it stands to reason all or most of the others were done at the same time?

Stewie wrote:Tigger
This site has a great news index by month and shows all the coverage right from 3 may.

what is strange is that there was a lot of coverage in the Belfast telegraph in may but this isn't in the index . It is there in June 2007 but not may , which of course had the Donegal photos. makes me wonder if it really was from may 07.
The birthday cake photo makes a very early appearance on 6 may so the family must have released this one to the press pretty sharpish



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I'll look into that, meanwhile I've just put out a lot of borrowed stuff from the Donegal topic, because the early dates of the articles (it really is the 11th May in the Belfast Telegraph) with a lot of well-aimed misinformation points to some degree of preparation. imo.

ps. just looked at it and one of the first photographs is one that is never seen again! Where Gerry has the children on his back and I swear that isn't Maddie on his back, possibly why it wasn't used again?

Hi Tigger, Uncle John lives in Scotland, not Ireland. Glasgow I think.

uppatoffee wrote:Hi Tigger, Uncle John lives in Scotland, not Ireland. Glasgow I think.

That's what I thought, then I got confused with the posts on Donegal and thought he lived there.

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This site is run by the people who were on the Majorca holiday with them. Stuart and Tara. The Gaspars were there too.

So it looks as if this is a roundabout way to sell a 'cuddle cat' - this is from last year? I'm not good in finding out when websites were started up.

Why didn't they dare to launch their own website cuddlecat.co.uk? It was registered to the McCanns from mid May 2007.

tigger wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This site is run by the people who were on the Majorca holiday with them. Stuart and Tara. The Gaspars were there too.

So it looks as if this is a roundabout way to sell a 'cuddle cat' - this is from last year? I'm not good in finding out when websites were started up.

Why didn't they dare to launch their own website cuddlecat.co.uk? It was registered to the McCanns from mid May 2007.

Hi Tigger,

If you google "wayback machine" it's an internet archive application. You can paste any url into it and it will show you all the archived instances of a website or page

For this website, it's been archived 4 times and the first time was 15 Dec 2008:

FILE ARCHIVED ON 15:11:13 Dec 15, 2008 AND RETRIEVED FROM THE
INTERNET ARCHIVE ON 17:59:20 Apr 16, 2012.
JAVASCRIPT APPENDED BY WAYBACK MACHINE, COPYRIGHT INTERNET ARCHIVE.

This is the link to the page:
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Stewie wrote:

tigger wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This site is run by the people who were on the Majorca holiday with them. Stuart and Tara. The Gaspars were there too.

So it looks as if this is a roundabout way to sell a 'cuddle cat' - this is from last year? I'm not good in finding out when websites were started up.

Why didn't they dare to launch their own website cuddlecat.co.uk? It was registered to the McCanns from mid May 2007.

Hi Tigger,

If you google "wayback machine" it's an internet archive application. You can paste any url into it and it will show you all the archived instances of a website or page

For this website, it's been archived 4 times and the first time was 15 Dec 2008:

FILE ARCHIVED ON 15:11:13 Dec 15, 2008 AND RETRIEVED FROM THE
INTERNET ARCHIVE ON 17:59:20 Apr 16, 2012.
JAVASCRIPT APPENDED BY WAYBACK MACHINE, COPYRIGHT INTERNET ARCHIVE.

This is the link to the page:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I tried it for cuddlecat.co.uk and it gave me archiving dates.
I don't actually know what archiving a website means, just keeping the name going but not having to pay the server for the upkeep?
Wayback only seems to go back to 2008 whilst it was definitely registered in 2007 - sorry Mr. Egg, but on the technical side of the web I'm pretty clueless.

The ethical kids site is not very efficient, can't find a way to order the cat toy. Not that I want to, just wanted to check the price.

tigger wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This site is run by the people who were on the Majorca holiday with them. Stuart and Tara. The Gaspars were there too.

So it looks as if this is a roundabout way to sell a 'cuddle cat' - this is from last year? I'm not good in finding out when websites were started up.

Why didn't they dare to launch their own website cuddlecat.co.uk? It was registered to the McCanns from mid May 2007.

Hmm...Wonder why did Stuart and Tara start such a website and did nothing to it. I am assuming they have not done trading (as in selling anything) on that site. Besides, it is such an odd name if it is for meant business purpose. That kind of name is usually associated with welfare than trade.

As for why didn't they dare launch their cuddle cat website I am sure they had been counseled not to take their "campaign" down the commercial route, as that might be a step that will doom them.
Am guessing that maybe they did mean to launch it for commercial reason, but the dog scuppers their plan.

Can people imagine what the public will think?
They were supposed to be searching for their first born not taking advantage of the situation to line their pocket by peddling a toy they claimed was Maddie and Maddie never go anywhere without it.
Had they launched it and used it for commercial purpose they would have become national, even international jokes.

Yes, quite Aiyoyo.

Launching Cuddlecat.co.uk would have alerted the general public that all was not well with the story. One website too far one might say.

Just as Clarrie, in a rare moment of common sense, put a damper on Gerry's idea to have Kate photographed in her swimsuit on the beach.
Errrm Ger? We were already getting treats such as Gerry's sweaty, hairy, manly torso - No! I can't go on, have to lie down in a dark room ..

wow im shocked.. or maybe not, nothing surprises me anymore about this case...

the one picture of M , the one from the side, where she drinks from a bottle.. Is there other side photos of her to compare to ? She just looks so different, more like Amelie..

There is one other side face photo that I can think of - one of those supposedly taken in PDL. It's numbers 11 and 12 on this link of all the holiday photos.

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I don't think that the photo of the child drinking from a bottle can possibly be of Madeleine.

Jean wrote:There is one other side face photo that I can think of - one of those supposedly taken in PDL. It's numbers 11 and 12 on this link of all the holiday photos.

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I don't think that the photo of the child drinking from a bottle can possibly be of Madeleine.

I've never been happy about the playhouse photograph either , doesn't work at all well with the tennis photo. The walls under her eyes here are tiny compared to the ones seen on other snaps. Her teeth look too close together at the front and so on. It's a pretty 3/5 year old, not very tall - her height measured against the play house was worked out at about 1 metre.
Hair is blonder than brownish hair in tennis photo and so on. Really can't say this is Maddie.

Girl with the straw , definitely not. imo.

look at the gap in the teeth of the girl in pool photo and playhouse photo...count front right tooth as tooth no 1 and look at gap between 2nd and 3rd tooth right hand side....identical . This is the same girl imo.

Why is there mention of "pretty" in a post about photographs? It seems rather unkind to be dissecting the appearance of a little girl. I do not think our interest in this case should be so intrusive as to be analysing facial features to the extent judgment is passed. So can we please note facial features of any children we discuss and not resort to subjective comments? I have already read a post on this forum wondering why an abductor would not have chosen smaller prettier Amelie.. beauty is in the eye of the beholder, some will find beauty where others do not see it, whether it be in male or female adults or children, so can we have respect for Madeleine please and remember that we do ourselves no favours as a forum by comments like this. It might be worth mentioning that others who look for reasons to criticise posters here will take this dissection of appearance and interpret it as an unhealthy way to be looking at a child...lets not give them grounds for any more horrible comments about this forum.
Admin I truly think no purpose is served as regards debating this case by continued remarks of Madeleine's physical attractiveness or lack of it. I do not know when or why it began, but I do not think it is justified and I hope you will advise posters of how unkind and irrelevant it is.

Jean wrote:There is one other side face photo that I can think of - one of those supposedly taken in PDL. It's numbers 11 and 12 on this link of all the holiday photos.

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I don't think that the photo of the child drinking from a bottle can possibly be of Madeleine.

I must agree.. That do not look like her, but would be easier if we had a side photo of her from same age... I've seen that picture before, and people have commented that it is not Madeleine.. But when seeing the same picture on a Mccann friend site, I can only conclude that we atleast are supposed to believe its her..