Marketers Will Not Destroy Second Life

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Much negativity has surrounded the launch of a new marketing company called Crayon. The company chose to make their launch announcement within Second Life where they established an island outpost. Some seem to think it's the end of Second Life because Crayon, along with all kinds of other marketers, will enter Second Life with no respect for the world's current residents. To coin a Second Lifers anti-marketing sentiment, it's all a gallery of lies. Second Life will be just fine with or without marketers.

First of all, Crayon is not a company whose sole purpose is to create marketing programs within Second Life. The company created the outpost as an efficient place to conduct business. Sure, some of the work they do may be Second Life-related but that is not the focus of the company. We don't profess to know anything more than what a couple months-worth of visits to Second Life have provided but, as far as we can see, no one is forcing Second Life residents to pay any attention at all to brands entering the world. In fact. most have been set up on islands which can easily be ignored or never discovered in the first place.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-29-06    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Online, Opinion, Social, Trends and Culture



FDR Ad Compares Stem Cells to Penicillin

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Continuing the stem cell debate that's risen into public salience because of the Michael J. Fox ad, this ad asks us to imagine what life would be like if FDR looked at penicillin the way Bush looks at stem cell research.

It's a provocative context to say the least. And not to change the subject or anything, but doesn't FDR sound kind of like the Wizard of Oz? - Contributed by Angela Natividad

by Angela Natividad    Oct-28-06    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Online, Trends and Culture, Video



Rapper Gets Shafted on 'Cribs' for Hyping Family-Friendly Cars

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In a spoof on Cribs, segment producer Jonah Rothelsberg appreciates fictional rapper P-Krunk's "unique taste" but "[a] rapper who doesn't capriciously spend all his money on cars and 100-inch plasmas is an anomaly that strains credibility." Seems hyping minivans just isn't Cribs-savvy.

We tried to come up with something further to say about this but Rothelsberg made all the jokes before we could. Guess that's what makes him the producer. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

by Angela Natividad    Oct-28-06    
Topic: Celebrity, Spoofs, Trends and Culture



MySpace Down, Comics Up, Men Stickered, Dove Spoofed

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- While some attribute recent visitor loss at MySpace and Facebook to seasonality, others, including members themselves, attribute it to the increased level of intrusive advertising on the sites. It's off to Second Life we go.Watch out residents.

- Cynopsis reports TBS and MySpace have partnered for an online comedy competition called The Stand Up or Sit Down Comedy Challenge which invites amateur comics to submit videoes. The winner will appear in a George Lopez-hosted special on TBS November 18.

- The girls over at street wear brand Married to the Mob don't like the apparent girlishness of the new man and are slapping "Men Are the New Women" stickers on the backs of unsuspecting guys.

- The Weinstein Company is placing a Truth ad is its DVD release, the first being Clerks II.

- Somehow this whacked YouTube video is supposed to promote The Filter, an iTunes add on which automatically creates playlists based on what you listen to.

- With the tagline, "A World Without Science is a World Without Discovery," InterSpectacular has created four new promotional commercials for Discovery's Science Channel.

- Datran Media and the Ad Council have launched a public service advertisement email campaign across the U.S. on behalf of the Environmental Defense's Fight Global Warming campaign.

- Blah, blah, blah....a Dove Beauty spoof.

by Steve Hall    Oct-26-06    
Topic: Guerilla, Online, Promotions, Social, Spoofs, Trends and Culture



Second Life Versus First Life Advice Offered

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Swivel Media's Erik Hauser offers us this column on his in-depth experience with Second Life, ahead of the curve work for Wells Fargo and his companies creation of Stagecoach Island a virtual reality world based on Second Life. He offers sage advice to marketers with Second Life on the brain.

Retro-Marketing
Marketing to People in Their First Life

By Erik Hauser 10.25.06

I can vaguely recall the days when things were very different.

People spent their time in a world filled with oxygen. It seems just like yesterday - OH MY - it was yesterday! Let's take a trip down memory lane shall we? The date is Jan 1st 1997, and people are starting to spend some time on this thing called the internet. Within a couple of years there was a hyper-saturated web with niche sites that had everything from exclusive glues to websites designed as destination locations for people in their mid 30's that had an affinity for poodles. Certain people claimed they would never leave the house again, and vowed to radically change their behavior.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-26-06    
Topic: Consumer Created, Good, Online, Opinion, Social, Trends and Culture



Second Life Brand Explosion Examined

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CoolzOr has put together an in-depth review of the many brands who've stepped in Second Life and the tremendous growth the virtual reality world is experiencing. CoollzOr walks us through the Second Life presence of brands such as Adidas, Reebok, American Apparel, Sun Microsystems, Toyota, IBM, Starwood Hotels and Nissan. Each has created an interesting virtual representation of themselves and, predictably, not without some complaint from SL residents.

Ad agencies have jumped into the world as well including Leo Burnett, BBH and the new social media agency Crayon which will open tomorrow.

If you're interested in keeping with what's happening in Second Life, Reuters has set up shop and provides news about the world. Preceding Reuters' coverage of Second Life is The Second Life Herald which is filled with all sorts of SL activity. CNET is there too.

Second Life has been around since 1999 but has only recently caught on with marketers and, for that matter, the general public having just netted it's one millionth resident a few days ago. In an odd way, this feels like the old AOL when it passed its one million mark. If you missed out on that ride, now's your chance not to miss this one.

by Steve Hall    Oct-25-06    




Joe Jaffe Launches 'Crayon' Inside Second Life

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Joe Jaffe of Life After the 30-Second Spot and Across the Sound fame has launched a new marketing company icalled Crayon which will make its debut inside Second Life this Thursday. The company intends to be a bit different than your typical marketing firm focusing on social media and the tenets Jaffe set forth in his book. Joining with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson from For Immediate Release and CC Chapman from Accident Hash and Managing the Gray, Jaffe will dive head first into the world of conversational marketing and his belief that companies which refuse to believe marketing is a conversation rather than a one way information dump are doomed to die.

by Steve Hall    Oct-23-06    
Topic: Agencies, Social, Trends and Culture



MacBook Purchase Financed With Laptop Cover Ads

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In yet another version of the eBay forehead/pregnant belly advertising thing, the very cute Leah Culver is asking for donations to retire her six year old G3 iMac and buy new MacBook Pro. In return, she promises to etch the names/brands of those who donate onto her new laptop for all to see in the San Francisco area for as long as the new computer lasts. She's already raised $2,687.44 which would appear to be enough to buy the MacBook but she's still selling adspace. Leah, tell us when you sell out, buy the computer and design the laptop cover. We'd love to see it. (Photo by Tantek)

by Steve Hall    Oct-21-06    
Topic: Good, Social, Strange, Trends and Culture



Magazine's Culture Mixing Campaign Urges Kindness

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Sort of like Warren Beatty who, facing racial tension in the movie Bulworth said, "If we all fucked each other, we'd eventually end up the same color," this campaign for Belgian weekly teen magazine HUMO presents a culture mash-up to deliver the message that culture mixing makes everyone nicer. As CoolzOr comments, the poster portion of this campaign didn't last long as teens an college kids "borrowed" them for the bedroom and dorm room walls. The campaign appeared in HUMO magazine itself and as wild postings next to posters for candidates running in an election that occurred earlier this month. Belgian agency Mortierbrigage created the campaign. Three other posters can be seen here.

by Steve Hall    Oct-20-06    
Topic: Good, Guerilla, Magazine, Outdoor, Poster, Trends and Culture



Iran Not Hot on Cleavage

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Gawker reports a Swedish gentleman by the name of Jonathon Lundqvist returnd fom a trip to Iran with copies of several western magazines he purchased at a newsstand. All of the magazines are manually censored blocking out areas of the ad which are deemed to be too risque. It's not the censorship that's surprising but the manual labor involved in black inking all the "too revealing" content

by Steve Hall    Oct-19-06    
Topic: Magazine, Policy, Trends and Culture