Hasta La Ideas

In a somewhat shoddy move, the promoters of Michael Jackson’s planned London gigs are offering to send fans a souvenir ticket in lieu of a refund. A ticket that, we are told, was designed by Michael Jackson himself

“The world lost a kind soul who just happened to be the greatest entertainer the world has ever known,” said Randy Phillips, President and CEO of the promoter, AEG Live. “Since he loved his fans in life, it is incumbent upon us to treat them with the same reverence and respect after his death.”

Apparently, this ‘reverence’ manifests itself in attempting to persuade concert-goers to forego getting their money back in favour of being sent the tickets that they would have received anyway.

There are eight variants (shown above, copyright AEG as you can see). According to the promoter’s website “The tickets, printed with the special lenticular process, were inspired and designed by Michael Jackson for the fans attending his shows.” Given the tragic state Jackson was reportedly in before his death, we’re not sure what exactly his involvement in the design would have entailed – we’re not imagining him slaving over PhotoShop for too long, to be honest.

The tickets are sized 82mm x 186mm. “The front of the ticket is the lenticular image and the reverse side is the standard ticket detail including the performer name, tour name, show date, venue, section number, row number, and seat number,” says AEG, before adding this spectacular piece of emotional blackmail “His hopes were his fans would want to keep the special ticket as a reminder of the memorable evening that they would share together.”

As my colleague Gavin just pointed out, they look like the kind of thing you’d expect from a particularly tacky West End musical.