Hamptons Jitney Refuses to Promote Disinformation Satire
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 7/7/2008 2:02:00 PM
Miles Jaffe’s The Hamptons Dictionary: The Essential Guide to Class Warfare casts a satirical look at life in the posh Long Island vacationland, with definitions of terms like “tanorexia” and local takes on phrases like “hampster cage” (a group rental in the Hamptons). When the book’s publisher, the Disinformation Company, paid Hampton Jitney—a motor coach company that provides transportation between Manhattan and the Hamptons—to put copies of the book in sample bags to 500 passengers in each of June, July and August, Jitney’s marketing team didn’t look closely at the book before giving it to customers on a recent summer trip. If they had, they’d have seen that the book defines the Jitney as a “cattle car” and a “bus for cidiots,” (defined as idiots from the city) with an accompanying illustration.
“We were very disappointed that The Hamptons Dictionary chose to attack our company and the people that visit the Hamptons and our passengers in the way that they did,” said Jennifer Friebely, Hampton Jitney’s director of marketing and public relations. The company refunded Disinformation’s money for the July and August promotion, and will not give further copies of the book to its customers.
Gary Baddeley, president and CEO of The Disinformation Company said, “How they could fail to think twice about the content of a book from a publishing company called ‘Disinformation’ I'm not sure. Especially as we sent them content in advance.” Disinformation published the book in April. Baddeley said there are 7,000 copies in print. The book's author, Miles Jaffe, is known as a satirist; his Web site NuketheHamptons.com caused a stir in 2001.
Hampton Jitney often receives money from vendors in return for giving Jitney customers product samples. The minimum two-hour ride presents vendors with a captive audience. Friebely noted that the Hamptons Dictionary incident was a reminder that “you can never be too careful” when selecting which products to promote.
