Gluebound Glory
Jim Moran was sought out once again for his skills in publicising the most extraordinary of things. The Gluewise Company PLC in Boston found themselves at the bottom of the glue league tables, amidst a wash of other adhesive companies that had flooded the market. Moran set to work immediately and decided to join forces with the pilot and then owner of the plane City of Chicago. The pilot had once risked his own life in order to keep his plane in the air and was a well known figure in Massachusetts Moran thought it would be a great publicity stunt to send the City of Chicago back up into the air but this time with the pilot stuck to the plane with none other than Gluewise Glue.
The day came when the flight was to take place and thousands of onlookers gathered at a disused aircraft base. The feat had been advertised in all the local state papers but had reached far further afield, and some people had travelled across two states to see the event. The flight went ahead as planned and the pilot stuck to his plane throughout the whole 10 minutes flight up and down.
Moran had of course organised a photocall and a number of photographers took various shots of the pilot stuck to his plane. Unfortunately, one member of the public with a keen eye for detail wrote into the Chicago Times a day later, saying if you looked closely you could see a strap tied around the pilot’s waist and part of the wing of the plane. Strangely enough, the resulting disgrace of the episode actually increased the sales of Gluewise a hundred fold as everyone remembered both the daring and the audacity of such a stunt.