Don’t get me wrong, as an agency person I am all for enthusiastic participation in marketing the client’s product, and as a committed testing specialist, I am all for putting my money where my mouth is, but in the following article from The Times, journalist Catherine Philp buys a bulletproof jacket from tailor Miguel Caballero and then allows him to shoot her in the stomach.

I am in an office with a man pointing a gun at me. He looks me in the eye and tells me: “I will count to three and then I will shoot you. One, two, three.” Then he pulls the trigger.

What if this rather unnecessary stunt had gone wrong?

Mr Caballero says his clients can trust their jackets with their lives because of the rigorous testing he conducts with his employees. Everyone who works for him has been shot by him.

That’s reassuring, I suppose. I also suppose that the rules of testing new bulletproof clothing materials follow the same rules as testing new web sites.

The earliest tests were not an unqualified success, Mr Caballero admits.

Indeed. For me, quality assurance is about risk management, and specifically about minimising the risk of mis-delivery. You want to shoot someone to prove a point, find yourself a dummy.

More:

• Times article by Catherine Philp in Bogotá
• Miguel Caballero – Proteccion personal personalizada – bulletproof resistance clothing

First posted: 5 June 2007 on www.participationmarketing.co.uk