Rachels Are Not Answering the Call

Through the website Calling All Rachels, British dairy company Rachel's Organic is trying to "gather together the world’s largest collection of people who share the name." Famous Rachels include actress Rachel Weisz, model Rachel Hunter, and English singer Rachel Stevens—none of whom want anything to do with the publicity stunt. Non-celebrity Rachels have had a similar reaction.

“Rachel is so popular a name I don’t think I’d bother getting involved with this,” said Rachel Williams, 28, a civil engineer from Ammanford. “I don’t feel a particular connection with other people called Rachel – it’s more a case of feeling common! – and I doubt it would lead to me buying the yoghurt, though I have done in the past.”

Marketing experts said the campaign was a risky but clever strategy. “We would never usually advise clients to base their campaign on such a negligible part of their target audience. You have to wonder what percentage of their target audience are actually called Rachel,” said Fiona Anderson, head of PR at Working Word PR. [Link]

Domain Names Expire

Two of the three PETA activists who changed their names to website addresses have decided that even principled publicity stunts have expiration dates.

"I think maybe its time had come and gone," said Karin Robertson, formerly known as "Goveg.com" until last month.

Robertson led the way, changing her name in March 2003 to get people focused on animal rights and vegetarianism.

Her success inspired others. Last fall, [Christopher] Garnett and Brandi Valladolid went to the courthouse and, with the stroke of a judge's pen, became "Kentucky fried cruelty.com" and "Ringling beats animals.com." [Link]

Only Valladolid has kept her new name, probably because it sounds better at job interviews than "Brandi."

Some Family Ties Have Strings Attached

R. Allen Stanford—founder and chairman of the Stanford Financial Group in Houston—recently donated $2.5 million dollars to restore the home of Leland Stanford, Sr., who founded Standford University with his wife Jane. Allen has claimed that Leland's father was "closely related" to his own great-great-great-grandfather.

The University is suspicious. Some suspect that Allen Stanford is trying to buy some good publicity for his offshore banking outfit.

“I am not aware of any genealogical relationship between Allen Stanford, founder of Stanford Financial and Leland Stanford,” [Susan] Weinstein — the official guardian of the usage of the University’s name — said. “Of course, this does not mean that there is not a distant relationship — but it does not show up in any of our records.” [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]