Editor's Correction: The post I mention here was not written by Po Bronson, but by his fellow blogger Ashley Merryman -- a lawyer, former Clinton Aid, and journalism police. I apologize for the mistake, but come on, her name is written in tiny little letters. Po and Ashley were very angry with me, calling my mistake "frightening" and "embarrasing." Again, while I apologize for the error, I find it much more embarrassing and equally as frightening that Ashley did not take the time to check into what happened with my promotion with Failure to Launch and Viacom, and that she blogged about it without knowing all the facts. Good journalism would have induced her to do a minimal amount of investigation before jumping to conclusions. So let's not point fingers Ashley, shall we?

I had to share something really funny. While I was googling my name the other day (I do that a lot!), I happened on a blog entry from Po Bronson, author of the books What Should I do with my Life, Why Do I Love These People?, and What Am I Going to Name My Next Book?” (I just made it up, but Po, you can have that last title).

Apparently, Mr. Po Broson Ashley Merryman was very upset about the fact that Paramount and I (as the author of Boomerang Nation) put out a joint press release announcing my promotion of the film Failure to Launch. In fact, he  she likened it to a diabolical conspiracy, pointing out that Simon & Schuster (my publisher) and Paramount are both owned by the sinister Viacom. Oooh...I smell a story!

Not only do I think Po  Ashely is off his rocker, I think his her conspiracy-building skills are being wasted and would be better applied to working with the organization (which I actually support) www.truth911.org.

He She writes about how angry he was that Paramount and I released a joined a press release and how upset he she was that so many media outlets, including The Today Show and Boston Herald took the bait. He She also pointed out, not once, but twice, that my book was (gasp!) 1 YEAR OLD!!! Yeah Ashley Po, pretty soon it will be a collector’s item.

Po Ashely goes on to write a vitriolic sour grapes rant on his blog. Seems like someone has never been a spokesperson before. Marketing/PR 101: Many authors make bank promoting products. I did not get paid anything to promote Failure to Launch. It was a mutual makeout session: I liked the movie and the movie liked me! What’s wrong with a little afternoon loving?

Read on (Credit: Po Bronson’s Blog)…

“All of which amounts to what I'd consider a spectacular home run for Viacom . . . and a spectacular failure for journalism. Not only did the news outlets take the bait -- and double-up on the time they devoted to the Failure to Launch topic, not only did they highlight a year old book -- but they also reported on a trend which, after a year of researching, I can honestly say I do not think exists.”

First off, I want to say that as smart, as brilliant, and as well-funded that I think the people at Viacom are, I was not lucky enough to have a representative contact me to cross promote my book. If only life were that easy. But for a lowly author like me, it never is.

In fact, I take it as a compliment that Po Ashely considers it a brilliant promotional move, since it was all my idea. Here’s how it went down:

Boomerang Nation / Failure to Launch Cross Promotion:

1. Feb 2005: I find out that Paramount is planning to start casting for a film called Failure to Launch for release in 06.
2. May 2005: Boomerang Nation comes out!
3. Jan 2006: I hear more rumblings that the movie is set to be released.
4. Feb 2006: I contact Paramount and ask to see an early screening of the film.
5. Feb 2006: I love the film, and based on all the research and interviews I’ve conducted, conclude that is has many similarities to the real life boomeranging trend. I realize that I would not be pimping myself out or compromising my book if I was to support the film.
6. Feb 2006: I call Paramount and propose several ways of working together. One of the cheapest being to issue a press release to talk about how I will discuss the film in the media.
7. Feb and March 2006: Woo hoo! I end up going on The Today Show, CNBC, Geraldo at Large to discuss the boomeranging trend. See the clips on my press page. Who doesn’t love being on TV???
8. March 2006: Many authors contact me to congratulate me on the success of the book/movie cross promotion. Everybody wins. My book gets promoted, the film goes to #1, and boomerangers are even more aware that they’re not alone, freaks, or weird for living at home.
9. Oh yeah, I also got to meet Matthew Mccohnaughey at the film premiere, who looked at me funny when I asked him to sign my book. Of course, I took it for what it was: that he was madly in love with me.

And as far as Boomeranging not being a trend, well, I guess Po Ashely has done his her research. It seems that bad media guys and inept journalists are all jumping on the trend bandwagon and creating something out of nothing.

Here’s what I have to say. Granted, young adults have been living at home for decades, but the problem is that there has been virtually no attention paid to this group. That’s why I wrote this book -- to help boomerangers come out of the basement and feel better about their choice to reside with the parents. So is boomeranging a new phenomenon? Not really. But the acceptance and attention allotted to this group have increased, making it look as if it’s a whole new trend.

And are there 18.6 million people living at home? Yes!

And are 60 percent of all college students in 2005 moving home to live with parents? Yes, again!

Also, I do predict that the numbers will only increase due to many factors like a return to historic immigration levels, increasing health care costs, the continued segmentation between the haves and have nots, rising costs of education, and predatory lending by credit card companies just to name a few. Also, since Generation Y is a much larger demographic, this “trend” is only going to become apparent as there will be many more 20- to 34-year-olds in 2010 than in 2000. And because of all the media attention, they won’t experience the same stigma that their older brothers and sisters did.

Anyway, whether it’s an old or new phenomenon, thanks to movies such as Failure to Launch, articles in major media, and my book :), more light is shed on the topic and that can only be a good thing!

Po Ashley finishes his her sour-grapes rants:

“And all of which I guess explains why Failure to Launch is #1 at the box office, and why I'm not working in the Viacom PR department, why Ms. Furman is on Today and I'm not. Tomorrow -- the real changes in young adult lives."

Sounds like someone wants to be on TV. (Correction: I should have known it wasn't Po who wrote this. After all, he's been on Oprah.)

http://www.pobronson.com/blog/2006/03/failure-to-launch-or-failure-to_12.html

In Boomerang Nation, on the last page, I asked all us former and current boomerangers to come together on several key political issues. If you'd read that far, you probably know that one of the main issues today is health insurance coverage. Young people continue to be one of the fastest growing segments of the population without health insurance, with about 32% of people ages 19 to 29 in American going completely without insurance. Fortunately, New Jersey has expanded coverage to young adults, allowing parents to insure their kids until the age of 30, provided they reside in the state and don't have children of their own. In fact, six states (Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas and Utah) have also extended health coverage up to ages of 24, 25, and 25, and many other states including New York, Connecticut, and Kentucky have started to debate the merits of similar laws. Let's hope this continues to be a trend. Go ahead and contact your state legislature and ask them to consider passing a similar bill. Check me out on CNBC the week of March 20 to hear me talking about this topic.

          

I had a chance to go to the NYC premiere of Failure to Launch at Clearview Chelsea West and it was really great. I did the red-carpet thing and met all the cast members, including Matthew, Zooey, Brad, Justin, Terry, and Kathy. I didn't mention their last names, cause by now we're on first name basis. Not really. But they did sign my book. I felt a little silly asking them to do it, but once they realized that i was a writer and not some crazy stalker/paparazzi, they were more than gracious. And yes, Matthew is even better looking in person. But my favorites were Zooey, Brad (alias, kitchen confidential), and Justin. They were really nice and asked about my book. Zooey brought her mom to the premiere and also revealed that they had been living together until she was 26, which means she only moved out last year. See! All these female celebs living at home. It's really amazing. Next, it was on to the new hot spot, restaurant/lounge Buddakhan, where the after-party was held. The decor was beautiful and even Salma Hayek showed up, no doubt to promote her new movie. She really does look great. In between bites of really delicious lamb, chicken dumplings and tempura shrimp, I had a chance to spot all the cast members enjoying themselves. It was a really fun night. But that's when I had to say goodbye. Rumor has it that Matthew M, Lance Armstrong, and George Clooney were all at Bungalow 8 later that night. Unfortunatley, and as much as I hated to say no, I was unable to join them for that last leg of the tour.

    

Two new books Strapped by Tamara Draut and Generation Debt by Anya Kamenetz (fyi: two ladies who do not return my emails :) ) have recently come out discussing how tough young people have it today, so tough that many of them have to (gasp!) move back home to live with their parents. Both books cite economic and social factors like the high cost of health care, skyrocketing education costs, exorbitant housing prices, and poor credit management as some of the main factors that are making it much tougher on this generation. I have to agree with them to some extent. While many boomers assume that this generation is the whiniest on record, there is something to say about how education is exceeding inflation and the housing prices just being totally ridiculous. It's simply much harder for us to match the middle class lifestyles that our parents enjoyed. Of course, this doesn't mean we should all give up trying and start racking up credit debt. But we should try to figure out how to be more sensible and realize that delayed adolescene and arrested development have a lot to do with our sense of economic optimisim -- or, lack thereof.