Thanks to Seesmic's recent acquisition of multi-social network updating service, Ping.fm, we're all now in for an exponentially increased onslaught of "I just made a ham and cheese sandwich" updates.
There are those who love Ping for its simplicity. And there are those who hate it and its ilk for trying to cram the same update down the throat of multiple services which, because they aren't all the same by design, often call for individualized, network-specific updates.
We love it because we're lazy but just wait until brands catch on to this. It will be like broadcast media all over again. Sometimes we never learn.
Last night I had the pleasure of recording a Beancast episode with Make the Logo Bigger's Bill Green, Please Feed the Animals' and Lemonade Movie creator Eric Proulx and The Beancast's Bob Knorp. We discussed the recent Domino's recipe change and the importance of actually solving a problem as opposed to just throwing money at it. We riffed on the Cablevision debacle. We took at a look at the growing importance of the community manager in relation to the rise in importance of social media. We waxed nostalgic about the jingle and we laughed out loud at Google's $500 million Yelp offer.
Check out the show notes here. Download the podcast directly here or get it on iTunes here.
In other social media news, Facebook is now a means through which an escaped criminal can taunt police while on the lam. Yes, it's true. Craig Lynch escaped from Hollesley Bay Prison on September 23 and launched a Facebook page with an image of himself sticking up his middle finger and posts that talk about where he is.
Don't you love social media?
Because children's causes are always a good thing, at 15:10 on Christmas Day, British teenagers will deliver a message to the nation. 'The Teens' Speech' will features 13-19 year-olds from various backgrounds and classes and will give the adult population their perspective on the state of things in Britain.
From Poke London, the film will debut on the front page of MySpace, but there are already many video submissions from teens already on the campaign website.
Maybe the teens can explain to the rest of the world why the country still has a Queen and royal family. Oh right. The tabloids would be out of business if there weren't such silliness.
Oh how persnickety people can get online. Once again it's a cause group and once again it's "mommy bloggers." Today PETA mass-tweeted "Never-b4-seen photos that will convince parents never 2 take their kids 2 the circus: http://bit.ly/7ha9NL" to over 150 Twitter users according to Allie Sullivan who watched the drama unfold this morning. The tweet linked to a site on which photos depicted the training of baby elephants for Ringling Bros. Circus
Without surprise, the mass tweet was met with a bit of vitriol such as "@officialpeta fuck you I hate PETA and always have" from @JessicaGottlieb. But it was also met with what, in the first place, PETA should have, if you're a social media believer, been going for: a conversation. Luckily, one did start between the cause group and Lucretia Pruitt. And by all accounts it ended pleasantly.
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Want to know if you're naughty or nice this holiday season? Visit Collective London's Twitter stream analyzer which detects whether or not you'll be on his list or not. You can also tweet you niceness or nastiness. Predictable, I'm naughty.
Not sure about this one but we haven't had a Million Dollar Homepage/IWearYourShirt thing in a while so let's check this out. Love Harnell (yes, that's his name) has launched Love Jingles. He offers to cover, write and perform jingles for brands and promote them on the web. Similar to IWearYourShirt, Harnell is using calendar-based pricing.
On January 1, 2010 the cost of a jingle will be $1. Each day the price will go up $1 until December 31 when Harnell will either be rich, bored or the laughing stock of the ad industry and his friends. But it's an admirable effort and a cheap one too for those who get in early.
- And now that fashion brands are involved, we've relabeled the flashmob FlashWalk.
- Want to be Phamous in Vegas? Oops, that's another casino's thing. Anyway, Mandalay Bay has launched the Untamed Adventure Contest. Facebook. Untamed moments. Compromising positions. Pictures. Prizes.
- Dear PR people: Don't lie. You don't want to "gauge my interest." You want me to give you press. There's no need for code words.
- Please Hire Us. Crispin Porter + Bogusky interns beg for jobs. Complete with retro flashing logo.
- If you somehow missed it during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, here's the :90 Michael Bay-directed commercial for your viewing pleasure.
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As you all know, we occasionally really love things most people don't. This might be one of those things. We just can't get enough of this work from 16 year old Goofy Boi who hooked up with Pretzelmake for, ahem, the Four Buck Hook Up, a music video that plays like an actual music video more than it does a commercial for the pretzel chain.
We're a sucker for derivatively simple, Owl City-like sing-a-long style songs...even though we never sing along. And anyway, who doesn't like a great young love story? Even if it comes in the form of a commercial?
In September, a Pretzelmaker executive found Goofy Boi's work online and worked with him to create this ideo to support a current promotion. Goofy Boi recorded the song in October and shot the video at a local mall the first week of November.
Give it a watch. And be nice to the guy.
Ever been out to dinner and marvel with a gasp at the succulent beauty of your meal as the waiter places it in front of you? Ever gasped the same way but with a decidedly different feeling when the waiter rests the bill on the table at the end of the meal? Wouldn't it be nice if you could breath a sigh of relief instead?
That's the brilliantly simplistic message of this ad for the Salem, MA-based Sixty2 on Wharf Restaurant and Lounge created by Keith Lane Creative. It's part of a campaign to promote the restaurant's mid-week Really Happy Hours from 5PM to 7PM.
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