Viking Scores Product Placement Triumph

The executives of Viking Range Corporation are assumed to be thrilled with the one bit of good news to be found in the last weeks and even months of economic unpleasantness.

A Viking Range product garnered, through no fault of their own, an unheard of PR four'fer (one better than a three'fer) of:

• national press coverage
• "Viking" brand identification in all news stories
• positive descriptions such as "top-of-the line"
• a central role in the story

A $5000 Viking BBQ was a significant player in Alaska senator Ted Stevens' corruption scandal, for which he was found guilty.  His crimes though, do not include poor judgement in BBQs, for this was a top-of-the line Viking.
The one sour note was played by the Washington Post in which was written:

"The amount of freebies that Mr. Stevens accepted to renovate his Alaska ‘chalet’ is significant, but the individual components -- a Viking grill, a vibrating Shiatsu massage lounger, a five-foot steel sculpture of migrating salmon -- underscore the petty needlessness of Mr. Stevens’s crime.”

But what does the Post know?  It won't be long now, 'til we learn of some 51 to 49 Senate squeeker green lighting an oil pipeline, wilderness befoulment, or forcible Inuit relocation which can be directly traced to a gift of a top-of-line $5000 Viking BBQ.

Petty?  I think not.

Note:  Viking Range Corporation was not a party to any gifts presented to Senator Stevens.