Corporate Love


It’s not that corporations are reluctant to exploit the desire for love. From the likes of eHarmony to the producers of The Bachelor, to the guy on the corner selling roses, people have been finding ways to turn romance (or some reasonable facsimile) into a profit for decades.

Along comes an Internet flash in the pan about a young boy trying to give a yellow rose to actress Megan Fox. She blows right by him, but did later publicly apologize for the snub. The sensation was perhaps not so much about the snub as the priceless look of anxious hope on the boy’s face that was captured in the photo.

Enter Eastman Kodak, who is desperately seeking the boy’s identity so that they can right this horrible wrong. Kodak has offered a $5000 bounty on this kid’s identity so that they can fly him and his family to a second chance meeting with Fox. No word on whether or not Kodak will provide a back-up rose.

Okay, I suppose it’s kinda cute, and it is a good way for Kodak to emphasize that pictures still stir an emotional response. I’m sure that should they root the kid out there will be lots of Kodak-centric publicity making it a good marketing ploy by the company. Also, it does tie into their big push into online social media as that’s the community that thrust this picture into the spotlight in the first place.

Still, I can’t help thinking that this hormone laden lad has gone home and rethought his boyhood crush by now and fixated on some other young starlet. He is probably soooo over Megan Fox. On the other hand, I suspect $5k and a free plane trip might just reignite his passion. You know how fickle teen boys can be.