I am in possession of promotional cotton swabs.
When I received the sealed, parchment envelope from Tabula Rasa, Richard Garriot’s MMORPG, via Fedex on Friday, I assumed it contained a signed photo for the Women in Games International auction I’m chairing. Eventually I figured out we weren’t expecting anything from them (my closet is already full of more signed game merch than I can keep track of) and opened the envelope myself. What should greet me but:
- A memo from “Operation Immortality” insisting I help save humanity by sending in a sample of my DNA, which would be sent to a storage device in “the far reaches of space” in case our race should “suffer a disastrous fate.”
-A PR waiver to sign allowing Tabula Rasa to digitize my DNA.
-A packet of cotton swabs, a static-free foil return envelope, and detailed instructions of how to take my own DNA specimen.
Needless to say, all of that made me utter a resounding “WTF?!” Luckily, after realizing it was a PR stunt, I remembered this CNET post about Richard Garriot taking gamers’ DNA into space. Still, talk about bizarre ways to stir up publicity. Even stranger is the fact that I moved recently: how did they get my address?
As of yet, my cheek remains unswabbed. Then again, if my DNA gets to hang out with Sarah Morrison’s, I might change my mind.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
If you don’t wish to go into orbit I would gladly do it for you!
August 11th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Is it just me, or does Tabula Rasa girl look a bit like Kari Byron from Mythbusters?
August 12th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Scott, that be your wildest dream.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Haha, actually that would be *my* wildest dream, or at least a dream, which is why Scott is poking fun at me for picking the image.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Be I the only one in here not having the hots for her?
August 12th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Wow, it took me way too long to figure out what that sentence meant :).
How can you not have the hots for Kari? She’s cute, she busts myths, and she’s got red hair. Red hair!
August 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Yeah, my one friend hates her though.
Her most hated TV personalities are Rachel Ray followed by Kari, its weird.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Rachel Ray I could see being mildly annoyed by, but how can you hate Kari?