Tag Archives: marketing
Dumbest company in the world executes dumbest PR stunt in world history
Online pawn shop company, Pawngo, made themselves a lot less popular in Boston this afternoon as they dumped 900 pounds of Buterfinger candy bars in Copley Square making fun of New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker. Obviously they're thinking any publicity is good publicity, and they sure got a lot of publicity out of this. That said, Boston hates them now, and a search of Twitter shows sentiment is overwhelmingly negative. I'm not sure how they imagined a mean-spirited PR stunt would go off any differently, but bringing it to Boston? Speaking as a Patriots fan, people might be mad at Wes Welker, but now they're MUCH angrier at Pawngo.
According to the City of Boston's website, the company is going to be charged with violating commercial dumping laws and the honorable pawn brokers of the Boston area are calling for the Attorney General to investigate Pawngo's business model.
Method Man’s Sour Patch Kids commercial
Here's Method Man's Sour Patch Kids commercial. It's awesome. If you like Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man, Sour Patch Kids, or awesome stuff, you'll like this.
Via Jay Smooth / David Jacobs
Save | Don’t Save
I don't know how I missed this WWF ad campaign from the summer, but I also don't know how it took so long for someone to think of it.
Via inspire me now.
Via inspire me now.
Stupid Ford Focus Commercial
This guy in the Ford Focus commercial who says something like, "If I say, to my friends, give me $5 gas, they think they're giving me a fair amount, but really they're giving me way more than I need." That kid's an asshole. Why don't you ask for the amount you need as opposed to seeing your friends as ATM machines. If they wanted to convey that it uses less gas than people think, why didn't they just have him say, "When I drive and my friends give me money for gas, they give me $5 and it's too much. I tell them sometimes, but not all the time."
Why do they want to make Ford Focus drivers look like people who knowingy take advantage of their friends?
Why do they want to make Ford Focus drivers look like people who knowingy take advantage of their friends?
“Twitter is a media/marketing vehicle disguised as a social network.”
Or full quote from this Mediaite.com interview with Bill Simmons: "Facebook is a social network; Twitter is a media/marketing vehicle disguised as a social network." It's interesting to see how hard Bill Simmons has fallen for Twitter because a couple months ago he was bashing it. In general, I think his take on media/journalism is too simplified, but this quote about Twitter is right on.
Free Office Space in Boston for Entrepreneurs
I don't like to write about where I work, but BzzAgent" is doing something pretty cool and deserves props. We have some extra space and instead of subletting it, the powers that be thought they'd do something different, which might help some people out to boot. We've got 12 desks that are going to go to entrepreneurs and laid-off peeps that prefer to work in an office setting instead of Starbucks. I think Bzz thinks that you can never have enough smart, enthusiastic people in one place and that place may as well be our office. Essentially, you bring the energy, we'll bring the coffee machine. I think about it like an incubator without the VCs, but I could be wrong. I don't think there are any catches, which makes it even cooler in my mind.
It's a neat office in a good location (the South End, which is neat in and of itself, even if the burrito place around the corner isn't good anymore) and the people are great. If you're interested, let me know and I'll put you in touch.
It's a neat office in a good location (the South End, which is neat in and of itself, even if the burrito place around the corner isn't good anymore) and the people are great. If you're interested, let me know and I'll put you in touch.
Cornpops.com
If there's anything on the internet that proves a brand will try ANYTHING to stand out, cornpops.com is it. I don't understand what's going on, but there's definitely an aspect of Choose Your Own Adventure. I imagine the pitch for this going something like, "OK, so we're going to get the most ridiculous shit together and tie it all loosely together and then people will talk about it." And, look, it worked, I'm talking about it. And now you are. (Thanks, Joe.)
The Jimmy Fallon Online Experiment – Niche Equals Survival?
I was going to write this post about how Jimmy Fallon has had a lot of guests from the internet world (Digg, Engadget, @bryanbrinkman) in a short period of time, but then Kottke and Waxy got there first.
I'll just add that while this feels like more than a clever marketing plan (appeal to the internets and get the internets to provide the marketing heavy lifting). What it looks like to me is that they're trying to give the show a cult following more quickly than it would on it's own with standard Hollywood guests. By turning Late Night into Internet Culture's TV show of choice, they're following the 'niche theory of blogging'. I wonder if it will work or if the internet is too varied a niche? Is Late Night the first niche TV talk show in history? What will the internet send NBC when they cancel Late Night, old iPod shuffles?
I'll just add that while this feels like more than a clever marketing plan (appeal to the internets and get the internets to provide the marketing heavy lifting). What it looks like to me is that they're trying to give the show a cult following more quickly than it would on it's own with standard Hollywood guests. By turning Late Night into Internet Culture's TV show of choice, they're following the 'niche theory of blogging'. I wonder if it will work or if the internet is too varied a niche? Is Late Night the first niche TV talk show in history? What will the internet send NBC when they cancel Late Night, old iPod shuffles?
Comprehensive Election Reactions Round Up – A Reference
After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, I didn’t quite know what to do to help myself take it all in. I found a message board called ‘Win it For’ that was started at some point before the World Series and was filled with stories from people who wanted the Red Sox to win the World Series for someone or other. I spent about 5 hours, reading it straight through, the morning after the World Series and it was the best way I could have celebrated the Red Sox winning.
On November 4, when Barack Obama was announced the winner of the 2008 Presidential Election I was searching for a similar sort of catharsis. Not so much because of Obama winning (which was nice) but because the election had been building as an event for almost 3 years – from the speculation of who would run, to the announcements, to the campaigns, to the primaries, to the general, and finally, November 4th came and went. I thought maybe I’ll collect a few thoughts from friends, or collect all the Facebook status messages, or collect a few links that helped tell the story. As I thought about it, I decided I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted without going overboard. And I won’t lie, despite my attempts at making this document impartial, there’s no way it could have been. And though I’ve tried to make its focus 11/4, Election Day, there were certain events from the campaign that creeped in.
I wanted to create something to look at a couple years from now to remember the election and hopefully present a good representation of what both sides of America were feeling on that day as evidenced by the response in the press and on the blogs. I didn’t capture everything, though I’ve certainly tried. I want to consume all of this information, have it put on a microchip in my brain. Until that’s possible, I just read a lot. I don’t know how many of these links will work in a year or 5 years, (when this doc might be helpful to show younger people who may not have ever remembered having a president who isn’t black), but here’s what I’ve got. At the bottom is a list of all the sites I used and the domains that helped.
This is a LONG post, when you get bored, bookmark it so you can come back later. There are several different sections. If you want to skip around, you can use the Contents Section below.
Celebrate! - A run down of the celebrations.
WINS! - A list of 38 sites and their winning posts.
Winners and Losers - 18 lists of election winners and losers.
Turnout, Voting, and Polling - Articles and stories about voting, polling, and turn out.
Reactions - Reactions from the world, pundits, and celebrities.
How Obama Won - Some thoughts on how Obama won.
Why McCain Lost - Some thoughts on why McCain lost and what next for the GOP.
Expectations and Advice - There are a lot of people with expectations and a lot of people with advice.
Race - Obviously electing the first black president is going to bring up comments on race.
Money and Business - What will the impact on your money and you business be?
The Media - Without the media, wherever would we be!?
Humor - Without the humor, wherever would we be!?
Miscellaneous - Without the miscellaneous, wherever would we be!?
Personal Stories from Friends - Just what it says.
273 Status Political Status Messages in 27 Hours - Just what it says.
Via - Here’s a list of all the sites I used in putting this together – the sources.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.â€
On November 4, when Barack Obama was announced the winner of the 2008 Presidential Election I was searching for a similar sort of catharsis. Not so much because of Obama winning (which was nice) but because the election had been building as an event for almost 3 years – from the speculation of who would run, to the announcements, to the campaigns, to the primaries, to the general, and finally, November 4th came and went. I thought maybe I’ll collect a few thoughts from friends, or collect all the Facebook status messages, or collect a few links that helped tell the story. As I thought about it, I decided I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted without going overboard. And I won’t lie, despite my attempts at making this document impartial, there’s no way it could have been. And though I’ve tried to make its focus 11/4, Election Day, there were certain events from the campaign that creeped in.
I wanted to create something to look at a couple years from now to remember the election and hopefully present a good representation of what both sides of America were feeling on that day as evidenced by the response in the press and on the blogs. I didn’t capture everything, though I’ve certainly tried. I want to consume all of this information, have it put on a microchip in my brain. Until that’s possible, I just read a lot. I don’t know how many of these links will work in a year or 5 years, (when this doc might be helpful to show younger people who may not have ever remembered having a president who isn’t black), but here’s what I’ve got. At the bottom is a list of all the sites I used and the domains that helped.
This is a LONG post, when you get bored, bookmark it so you can come back later. There are several different sections. If you want to skip around, you can use the Contents Section below.
Celebrate! - A run down of the celebrations.
WINS! - A list of 38 sites and their winning posts.
Winners and Losers - 18 lists of election winners and losers.
Turnout, Voting, and Polling - Articles and stories about voting, polling, and turn out.
Reactions - Reactions from the world, pundits, and celebrities.
How Obama Won - Some thoughts on how Obama won.
Why McCain Lost - Some thoughts on why McCain lost and what next for the GOP.
Expectations and Advice - There are a lot of people with expectations and a lot of people with advice.
Race - Obviously electing the first black president is going to bring up comments on race.
Money and Business - What will the impact on your money and you business be?
The Media - Without the media, wherever would we be!?
Humor - Without the humor, wherever would we be!?
Miscellaneous - Without the miscellaneous, wherever would we be!?
Personal Stories from Friends - Just what it says.
273 Status Political Status Messages in 27 Hours - Just what it says.
Via - Here’s a list of all the sites I used in putting this together – the sources.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.â€