The incredible resurrection of Sumardy “Coffin” Ma

You would have thought that Sumardy Ma, the self-professed pioneer of word-of-mouth marketing, had buried his career with his coffin antic back in June 6, when he sent coffins to several media houses and individuals as a publicity stunt to promote a book he was publishing.

Critics then decried it as bad taste and misguided creativity. The Police started investigating Sumardy Ma and brought him in for questioning. No one seems to know the outcome of these questionings.

Then, barely a month after than, Sumardy began his resurrection with pure chutzpah by “rebranding” himself as Coffin Ma on his Facebook page.

Now comes the shocking news that would awaken the dead. He is to be the key speaker in a workshop entitled “Boosting your Market with Word-of-Mouth”.

You have to ask the question of how MIx, a putatively reputable magazine on markting communications, makes its decisions. Does it seriously consider Sumardy an expert after that incredible boo boo, or has it sold out to Mammon at all costs and calculated, cynically, that curiosity over Sumardy would draw in the crowd and bring in the mollahs?