Only in vegas "story from Eye on Vegas"
“We never thought it would become something like this,” stated an astonished Andrew Wintner, VP of Marketing for the Light Group, when asked about Shanna Moakler’s special ‘Divorce Party’ that was held at Light Nightclub (Bellagio) on Friday Night. The former Miss USA and Playboy Playmate wanted to celebrate her newfound freedom after finalizing her divorce from rocker ex-hubby Travis Barker of Blink 182 fame. When Mr. Barker heard about the party he sounded off on his MySpace page with a written statement that has since circled the globe, “It saddens me people and even brings on the urge to puke,” blogged the rock star before continuing, “I’m gonna say a long prayer for her, she needs it.” It didn’t take long for Moakler to fire back with a rather blunt retort on her own MySpace page,”I am NOT the one running around the world with the town drug obsessed clown,” a rather transparent reference to hotel heiress Paris Hilton who has been spotted with Barker several times since the couple split. “After Barker responded on his MySpace site the media enquiries rolled in,” Wintner continued noting that People Magazine and US Weekly were just a few high profile publications who wanted footage. But it wasn’t just the tabloids that ran with the story either, because when Jay Leno picks up the story for his monologue, you know it has legs. The Light Group team capitalized on the photo opportunity presenting the newly single Moakler with a $1,200 multi-tiered divorce cake at FIX Restaurant from Bellagio’s pastry wizard Jean-Philippe Patisserie that depicted a bride holding a knife while a groom lay prone in pool of blood several tiers below. After dinner at FIX with friends, Amy Hunter and Natasha King, the trio moved next door to Light Nightclub where golf god Tiger Woods and former big league ballers Charles Oakley and Sir Charles Barkley joined the party. “It was really incredible,” said Wintner still shaking his head.

In a nightlife environment where stars demand top dollar for their presence and companies often find themselves in bidding battles, the Light Group has achieved quite a coup. Not only did Light not pay for Moakler’s appearance (although they did take care of her room, dinner at FIX and table at Light), they received massive national press attention and created a whole new revenue stream that will most likely pay dividends for years to come. “We’re going to start our own divorce party program, “said Wintner slyly, “It will be very similar to our wildly successful bachelorette party program except that instead of helping women celebrate their last day of freedom, we will help them celebrate their first day of freedom and it’s all based off of the success of Friday night.” Wintner isn’t taking all of the credit though, not even close, “Jake Saady did a great job with this event,” he adds referring to Light Nightclub’s marketing maven, “He deserves all the credit for helping make this such a success.” We can already see it, ‘book your divorce party today’, it’s truly a perfect extension of the Vegas mentality. Kudos to the Light Group for proving that wildly successful promotions that garner large scale publicity and have long term financial impact don’t always require an appearance fee and detailed riders.