Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Couple Auctions Name of Unborn Son to Corporations

Aired July 27, 2001 - 10:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Shakespeare asked, "What's in a name"; but in our day and age, the question, perhaps, should be how much is a name worth? A couple from New York City is offering corporate sponsors a chance to bid online for the naming rights to their unborn son.

The father is joining us today. Jason Black is a business editor at Internet World. And as you can see, also joining us today is the couple's 4-year-old daughter Josephine (ph).

Thank you both for joining us. I guess Josephine can't hear, but Mr. Black, can you hear us OK?

JASON BLACK, AUCTIONING SON'S NAME: Yes, I can. Thank you very much for having us both here today. We appreciate the chance to talk with you for a little bit about our effort.

FRAZIER: Your effort. And Josephine is 4. You have a younger daughter, Lois (ph). So only now did this idea occur to you. Why did it occur?

BLACK: That's right. Well, it occurred to us probably about three weeks or so ago. My wife and I were at home, we were having dinner, it was Chinese food, take-out. At the end of the meal we had a fortune cookie. And my wife opened it up and it said something like, You will have a new home at the end of the year.

And we took one look at that and we started thinking, well, what could we do? What could we do to actually make that obviously and to make that opportunity a reality? And we started thinking, well, maybe there would be a way so that we could create an actual financial benefit for our -- for our girls, our daughters and for our soon-to-be born son.

Josephine is seeing herself on the camera there, and I'm glad she's having a good time.

BLACK: Put your arms down.

FRAZIER: No, no, she can do that. That's a wonderful picture.

But in the meantime, you're talking about consumer products possibly bidding, so that your name would be named Frito or Ajax or Pepsi or something. BLACK: That's right. And I know it elicits some chuckles when people hear that. But, yes, it could very well be that. Or it could be -- my mother, the girl's grandmother, is actually rooting for Microsoft right now. That's been her top choice as we've been talking about this and what might be possible.

And we know that there's a lot of opinion out there, both positive and negative about whether or not we should even be doing this in the first place. But yes, his name very well could be that of either the parent company or maybe one of the company's products.

FRAZIER: Now, would you sort of cheat on this and give him a middle name that's, say, from your family or from a normal baby book kind of a process, and then use that as your form of address for him for the rest of his life, or would you use the product name?

BLACK: I don't think so. We're taking this very, very seriously, and we want to make sure that everyone's who's out there who's watching knows that this is really a serious marketing opportunity that we're helping to create right now. And...

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BLACK: Yes, listen as we talk, it's fine.

And that what we're trying to do -- I mean, for instance, if we were to come back on your show after the baby is born and help to announce the name and tell the world, here he is, this is our new son and his name -- and we unveil it and we launch it for everyone and we make it clear what it is. That's a pretty incredible media opportunity.

And not only is it that one opportunity, of course, but there are going to be recurring opportunities. There are going to be opportunities throughout his life as he's growing up where people are going to take an interest in this child and they're going to want to know, how is he doing? How is he progressing? Did he graduate? When did he hit his first home run in little league? Birthday parties, various things...

FRAZIER: Right. Now, we're running out of time, though, and I have to ask you one final question, though, about whether this may burden him. You know some people may think, as you mentioned, there were chuckles. There may be people less kind, thinking you're kind of nuts to be doing this to your son.

BLACK: Right. Well, I actually think that the contrary is true. Again, the real object of this effort at this point is for us to create not only a media opportunity for the corporate sponsor that we hope will come forward, but equally so that we can secure the financial security and the long-term financial health and investment needs of our son and of his sisters. Paying for college is not an easy thing to do in this day and age.

FRAZIER: Indeed; and now you have three. Well, good luck in the naming process, and good luck to your daughters. And thank you, Jason Black, for joining us today.

BLACK: Thank you again for having us.

FRAZIER: You bet. One final update, Daryn, the bidding starts at $500,000 on e-Bay...

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: $500,000?

FRAZIER: So far no bidders, though.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com