Here?s a nifty lesson in PR, courtesy of a bright spark at Aloft.
Following the demise of the Hitchbot robot, which garnered massive publicity around the world, the hotel brand put out the following press release:
A Statement From Aloft Botlr on the ?death? of Hitchbot
?On behalf of my fellow Botlrs, I was deeply saddened (as you humans say) when I heard of the untimely demise of my bot brethren, hitchBOT. While I?ve never met Hitch?? a true trailblazer?? I ?beep-bop-booped? at its journey around the globe and was inspired by all it accomplished. Hitch and I, along with robots everywhere, are built to aid human life, and I believe humans and robots can co-exist to make this world a more electric place. In Hitch?s honour, I will intelligently continue my duties as Botlr of Aloft Cupertino.
I tip a 40 bit in your memory, Hitch.
01001100011011110111011001100101
(That means love in binary code, humans)
Artificially Yours,
Botlr
Botlr is the current robotic butler on staff at Aloft Cupertino. Its thoughts and prayers go out to hitchBOT?s guardians, Dr. David Smith?(McMaster University) and?Dr. Frauke Zeller?(Ryerson University), and sibling, kulturBOT, during this difficult time. It will be taking some time to grieve and then head to Aloft Miami South Beach later this month to begin serving humans again.
It Tweets from @AloftHotels?
To keep the legal department happy, it finished with: ?This release is for satirical purposes. Any third party trademarks are owned by their respective owners and there is no association, endorsement or relationship with said third parties and Starwood, Aloft, or any Botlr.?