L45-2: The power of the press

But they suddenly became the parents of quintuplets, four girls and a boy, an event which radically changed their lives.The day after the birth of the five children an aeroplane arrived in Aberdeen bringing 60 reporters and photographers. The rise to fame was swift. Television cameras and newspapers carried the news to everyone in the country.Newspapers and magazines offered the family huge sums for the exclusive rights to publish stories and photographs. Gifts poured in not only from unknown people, but from baby food and soap manufacturers who wished to advertise their products. The old farmhouse the family lived in was to be replaced by a new $500,000 home. Reporters kept pressing for interviews so lawyers had to be employed to act as spokesmen for the family at press conferences. While the five babies were still quietly sleeping in oxygen tents in a hospital nursery, their parents were paying the price for fame. It would never again be possible for them to lead normal lives. They had become the victims of commercialization, for their names had acquired a market value. Instead of being five new family members, these children had immediately become a commodity.