Activism

McCainSpace needs a redesign, rethink

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

John McCain’s blog roll doesn’t include a link to his daughter’s blog, McCainBlogette. Though it does have Conservative blogger Michele Malkin (HotAir) and LaShawn Barber. Oversight? I don’t think so.

Meghan McCain maintains her distance for a good reason — if you read her blog closely. She does write about her Mom, fund raisers, the White House etc but does her own thing. The McCAin site, however is a tightly managed brand. It features issues, insights, trove of a photography, multimedia, and a networking tool called McCainSpace.

I experimented with it, and was confirmed within a few hours. But it is not what I expected. Since it riffs on MySpace, it suggests a networking space not a fund-raising funnel. It urges you to “build your own network of grassroots activists, take action and have fun.” On the site I created, categories include Modify your goals and Review Your Donors. The only way to build an address book is name by name –no uploading a database.

Huh?

Call me naive, but networking and activism isn’t only about getting people to drop money into a fishbowl. “Taking action” and “having fun” won’t go anywhere fast if those on the network are called ‘donors.’ I think they launched McCainspace too fast. Perhaps they have some functionality in the works, but the clock is ticking.

Cult of the amateur: provocative idea, wrong lens

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

If you loved Wikinomics, you’ve got to read Andrew Sheen’s “The cult of the amateur.” It forces your brain to take a compare the seductive arguments about knowledge democratization, and the decline of social values as a result of user-generated content.

On the face of it Sheen is a cross between Vincent Bryan Key (Subliminal Seduction) and Neil Postman (Amusing ourselves to death) both warning about the dangerous trends in advertising (in 1974), and television culture (in 1986) respectively.

He sees the internet as the slippery slope of literary, moral and cultural standards, and seems to try hard to relate it to amateurism. Indeed, the struggle between old media and its receptacles, versus new media and the infinite pores out of which this new content is flowing is easy to cast as one between the good guys and the baddies.

But it’s not, and I discuss why, here in my detailed review of the book, at ValleyPRblog.

Quotes for the week ending 19 Jan, 2008

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“I am particularly glad that The Future of Ideas is now freely licensed.  … I’m glad it now has a chance to flow a bit more freely.”

Larry Lessig, on news that his book (published by Random House in September last year), is now available as a free download under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

“I know you are supposed to put the “5 W’s” in the first paragraph of a release, but if it was me, I’d want to see this right off the top.”

Charlote Risch, at ValleyPRBlog, on an announcement of a partnership between CBS Radio and North Central News, a local newspaper in Phoenix.

“We call them lifeaholics.”

Hillary Benjamin, senior marketing director at Equinox Fitness Club, on the provocative ad campaign it launched through Fallon Worldwide, aimed an a professional, urban audience with high household income.

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

The new definition of marketing, as defined by the American Marketing Association.

“… they followed the rules of the game – but the game had changed. It went from billiards to soccer.”

Jeremy Pepper, on POP! PR Jots on “truth versus blogosphere truth,” commenting on the often misrepresented case about Kryptonite’s PR, and how bloggers rush to contribute to the echo chamber without checking their facts.

“This is a chance for writers to do what they do best–be original and tell stories.”

Writers Guild of America, quoted in MediaPost, on an online site StrikeTV, to be launched in February.

“We are at a huge crossroads in this industry, and they know it. They want to take our entire body of work, and give us this (makes gesture) give us zero for it.”

Luisa Leschin, via video, who worked on all 120 episodes of The George Lopez Show, and was co-exec producer.

Combative use of social media in Writer’s Strike

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Just like anything else in the mass- and narrow media world, the Writers’ strike has some interesting ripple effects . The Golden Globes was canceled, NBC has to refund up to $15 million in advertising, and has got creative with promos, while affiliated industries and their supporting artists –hair dressers, limo drivers, party organizers etc are losing out too.

Of course, everything’s connected to everything else –nothing new if you’re dabbling in social media. BBC is now reporting that YouTube and other video sites are seeing a lift in. viewership.

Which brings me to United Hollywood, the blog for the Writers Guild of America. They have a YouTube site where they chronicle everything they are fighting about, most of which is about being paid for content distributed online.

It gets better. One video, featuring the exec producer of Private Practice announces that WGA is ‘hosting’ an annual short film contest -basically soliciting user generated content (think of the irony here!) on themes such as –are you ready for this?– “why sharing is nice,” “show the moguls why the internet has value..” “why animation writing is writing,” etc. Videos need to be a maximum length of 4 minutes, could be from any genre (even mockumentary!) and needs to end with the line “We’re all on the same page.” The contest ends Feb 20th.

So far there are 92 videos, including this one addressing Rupert Murdock and his “holy grail” quote. Brilliant!

Publicity stunt or graffiti?

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Sometimes art and ‘stunt’ exchange marker pens. Or in this case, aerosol cans.

Bansky, the British graffiti artist (who placed an inflatable doll of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner at a Disney theme park last year) is promoting his art on the famous security wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, with images like this.

This stunt is timed with the move to bring tourists back to Bethlehem.

Bansky had a sound bite that beats anything the city could do to draw visitors concerned about their safety.

“If it is safe enough for a bunch of sissy artists then it’s safe enough for anyone,” he said.

In People vs Victoria’s Secret, small group wins

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This piece of news epitomizes everything we know about the shift taking place. Of people taking charge of their social environments –online and offline.

To summarize, in Gilbert, Arizona, a “small yet vocal group” told the mall management that it did not want to see barely-clad women in larger-than-life size posters facing outside on the mall.

Others have slammed this as a prudish attitude. “Victoria Secret Sells Underwear people! What are they going to advertise, hand bags?” commented one. But the fact is, the hoi polloi can –and will– make demands. You may recall Abercrombie & Fitch discontinued a catalog when accused of treading into soft porn territory, and had also backed down and pulled offensive T-shirts before that.

On the other side of the world, in Australia, a coalition of consumer organizations has launched a “dump soda” campaign. This includes asking that the Coca-Colas and Pepsis “Stop selling sweetened beverages” around schools, and a broader call to cease marketing to those under 16 in print, broadcast, via product placement, on mobile phones, at athletic event, via packaging etc.

Victoria’s Secret may not want to get into a ‘values’ face off. Parent company, Limited Brands, emphasizes social responsibility in terms of values such as: “doing what’s right,” “Being inclusive – in our thoughts and behaviors” and “Working for the greater good” –for the enterprise and the community.

T-shirt protest of typeface

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This is what happens when you let people who don’t actually understand branding or visual identity take a couple meetings with their overpriced design agency and then start “deciding.”

Sounds familiar?

This was a comment on the web site called Trajan Sucks, protesting the use of the typeface Trajan on the University of Kansas basketball shirts. It was brought in to replace an older serif typeface.

They had this to say about their loyalty to the game and their disloyalty to the typography police:

“We disenfranchised students, alumni, and fans need not acquiesce to this blunder. Make no mistake, we will support our team with zeal, but we need not accept the administration’s sartorial tastes”

Stealth PR from infant formula manufacturers exposed

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Some PR agencies will never learn. There have been plenty of cases where ‘flogs’ (fake blogs) have shown up, only to be traced back to PR agencies attempting ‘stealth PR.’ (Google Edelmen + Walmart and see.)

The latest one is for a group calling itself Babyfeedingchoice.org exposed by the Center for Media and Democracy as the front of the Infant Formula Council.

The site is very well done. It has areas such as “Moms and the media” with great quotes for lazy journalists wanting to get the other side of the story –people offended by seeing a mom breastfeeding an infant– and Resources with links to other similar sites. Looks very credible, until you dig around, and compare it to the saga of the fake Walmart blog.

Using Craigslist, Google and Facebook for activism

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My wife came across an unusual post when searching Craigslist for Montessori teachers. Among the many schools listed was a post from a ticked off parent warning people about a certain school in Mesa –the school happens to advertise on Craigslist. I have not seen this kind of activism on Craigslist before, directly insulting the advertising of another even though it is nothing new to online and social media.

It brings to mind a story I heard some time back where someone was so angry at a camera retailer that he took out pay-per-click ads for certain keywords on Google so that anyone typing in the name of the retailer who ripped him off would see the ‘ads’ that warned buyers of doing business with the store.

hsbc.jpgToday I heard an example of Facebook activism on For Immediate Release. It was a case of students in the UK using the social network to mobilize and protest against HSBC, a bank that had reneged on its promise of interest-free student loans. The latest update is that HSBC gave in!