Gawker: richard nouveau

Join Us In Quashing The Latest "Richard Nouveau" Publicity Stunt Again

Emily Gould — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 13:10:00 EST

Last week, everyone got all faux-horrified about the "Natural Selection Speed Date," an event co-sponsored by Urban Hostess and New York mag that grabbed Radar's attention with its grossout pitch: ""Society has taught us to not publicly acknowledge the obvious. Women want money in a man, men want beauty in a woman—this is a factual force of nature...This genetic cleansing is how the wealthy stays [sic] beautiful." But this "event" is just the latest Pocket Change publicity stunt, so we're going to go through the motions now of asking you to join us in ignoring it, in the hopes that this will make it go away. Who is "Nouveau?" Why does this exist? Well, here's the answer to the former. The latter still has us scratching our heads and fantasizing about moving to an organic commune on the outskirts of Portland.

Breaking: Rich Losers, Hot Morons To Mate In Manahttan [Radar]

Earlier: Join Us In Quashing the Latest "Richard Nouveau" Publicity Stunt

Join Us in Quashing the Latest "Richard Nouveau" Stunt

Chris Mohney — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:00:22 EDT

OK, we're putting a stop to this viral ad campaign right here, right now. Here's how it breaks down:

• "Richard Nouveau" is the pretend persona created by realty broker Urban Hostess to sell their Pocket Change lifestyle newsletter.

• Previously, "Nouveau" faked a prank that he'd responded to 100 women's J-Date listings and intended to stand them up en masse.

• Earlier this week, BlogNYC received a tip that someone was passing out flyers in front of the Time Life building that claimed "Nouveau," now a "developer," was pressing to rename the stretch of 50th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues.

• Today, BlogNYC runs photos of the flyers, posted in the windows of credulous local businesses. The flyers are actually from a group supposedly opposing "Nouveau's" attempt to change the street name (to "Richard Nouveau Ct."). The group, "Concerned Citizens for Change," has a suspiciously well-designed though content-free website with prose that runs a bit too purple for your average advocacy group.

• The chairman, president, and co-founder of "Concerned Citizens for Change" is listed as "Rose A. Goldstein." This is also the contact name listed in the site's domain name registration; site details are different from those for Pocket Change et al, though they use the same registrar and nameserver. Could be coincidence.

• Except that the phone number given for "Rose A. Goldstein" is a cell phone registered to one Michael Orell — who happens to be the "managing director of creative operations" for Urban Hostess.

The end.

Richard Nouveau Resurfaces [BlogNYC]

"Richard Nouveau" Resurfaces, Needs Pounding

Chris Mohney — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:00:29 EDT

Pocket Change, the most hateful boil on the tumor that is the lifestyle e-mail newsletter trend, uses a spokespersona by the name of "Richard Nouveau" who may or may not actually exist. Nevertheless, now that eyes have ceased rolling after "Nouveau's" most recent publicity stunt, BlogNYC received word that "Richard Nouveau" was handing out flyers in front of the Time Life building yesterday claiming that "Nouveau," now a developer, plans to change the name of 50th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues. No word on what the new name would be, how such could be either possible or advisable, or why "Nouveau" wasn't instinctively executed on the spot. Anyone with intel on the flyers — or better yet, a scan — is encouraged to submit same.

Is the Fictitious Editor-at-Large Richard Nouveau Coming Back as a Developer? [BlogNYC]