I promise this will be the last mention of what turned into a truly bad PR soap opera with SoBe Lifewater Summer Friday’s promoter Coltrane Curtis of Epiphany Media! But this latest episode is just too hilarious not to report! In addition, the whole story is a primer on how NOT to handle PR and event planning! On Tuesday, I received the following e-mail:
You have made SoBe Summer Fridays a spectacular fun-filled NYC summer event
series. We’d like to celebrate the program’s fantastic six-week run with a
special send off: The Best of SoBe Summer Fridays.
Have your portrait taken with the Classic Car Club Sport Motorcycle by
celebrity photographer Peter Ross, play video games in the EA Sports game
lounge, and learn to DJ from the world-renowned Scratch Academy. Enjoy
light fare prepared by La Esquina, Don Julio cocktails infused with
Pomegranate Cherry SoBe Lifewater, complimentary spa treatments, and an
event soundtrack provided by DJ Cassidy, DJ Mel DeBarge and DJ M.O.S.
Oh, and of course, catch performances by Anjulie and Brooklyn’s own Talib
Kweli.
Thank you New York!
RSVP for Event Details.
summerfridaysfinale@epiphanymediallc.com
Thus, I thought that they were extending an olive branch and asking me to give their event another chance. I was of two minds about it because Curtis’ previous bad behavior left such a bad taste in my mouth. However, since I am friends with both Talib Kweli and DJ Cassidy and so many of the other guests are friends of mine that I told about the event, I decided why not go and I rsvp’d. This is where the whole thing just gets sad and pathetic. Epiphany actually sent me the following message:
Dear Ms. Anderson,
Unfortunately due to existing circumstances you will not be permitted to attend this week’s SoBe Summer Friday event. Thank you for your understanding.
I mean really! How obnoxious and unprofessional is that?? First of all, I am NOT “Ms. Anderson”. It is “Henley-Anderson”! Secondly, who actually sends an invite then rescinds it??? And thirdly, the so-called “existing circumstances”, only exist in Curtis’ mind and were created by him! When I requested the names and contact info for the supposed other people that Curtis claimed asked that we be removed from the third event, he could never produce this information. The whole scenario is just bad business for events that are supposed to be promoting a brand! After I stopped laughing, I sent the following reply:
Coltrane,
That’s totally fine. As an invite was sent to my e-mail address yesterday, I thought we were done with all this and this was your attempt at extending an olive branch to right your previous wrong. As such, I thought I would give your event another chance. Thus, it is a complete shame that you guys have chosen to take this to this level and are continuing on this negative path. You are, after all, throwing parties not curing AIDS, ending global warming, or solving the situation in Darfur! With so many events to cover daily and general stuff going on in the world, I have moved on.
Have a great event and may you one day find peace within.
I ran into Mr. Curtis at the G-Shock launch last night at Cipriani’s and witnesses say he slammed a beer down and stormed out shortly thereafter. A far smarter move both professionally and spiritually would have been to have simply apologized two weeks ago and moved forward! Curtis’ current actions have just given further credence to the fact that I was ousted strictly because I honestly reviewed his second event. I sincerely hope this brother gets some awakening, as to be this petty in this Age of Aquarius and instant karma, is to be asking for some serious hard times ahead!
Epilogue: Purportedly, the final SoBe Summer Fridays was the worse yet. My spies reported that this week most guest weren’t allowed upstairs and thus couldn’t get to the spa services at all, (some of the technicians reported being bored out of their minds as they had very few clientele.). In addition, they kept tons of folks outside waiting for 2-3 hours who never got in!
