Friday, February 02, 2007  

A Virus is a Bad Thing, Remember?

Just a few more thoughts on the viral marketing kerfluffle here in Boston. I'm ripping off my own words from the comments on the first post and the thread on the forum.

I think there's a ton of hypocrisy going on with this. If a similar campaign for McDonald's or the U.S. Army went haywire like this, a lot more artsy types would be complaining about it. But because it's for an oddball cartoon that the cool kids like, somehow it's okay.

And that's part of what's so goddamn insidious about viral marketing.

Right now, the prevailing narrative seems to have become, "Oh, those dumb Boston cops. They're so old-fashioned. They don't even know [that cartoon]!" And everyone's so busy feeling hip and superior about getting the joke that they don't realize that their feelings ARE the virus. This is the kind of subconscious/emotional attachment to product that marketers all over the globe DREAM about.

Now being smart and cool and "getting it" is mixed up in everyone's mind with [that cartoon] - that's exactly what every marketing campaign wants to happen to their product in the minds of consumers. You know the commercials that just give you a happy feeling and barely mention the product? It's like that.

And then you've got people putting up blog posts, and making movies, and mashing up graphics making fun of the whole thing - again, proving how hip they are - which only serves to reinforce the utimate [cartoon]=good subconscious connection. What makes it worse is that now people are participating in the marketing scheme whether they know it or not.

It's just Al Jaffee's Nike t-shirt parody ("I'm an idiot that gives free advertising to a multi-million dollar corporation") writ large.

I don't know that that was the plan - I doubt it was - but as far as Plan B's go, it's a guerilla marketer's wet dream.

My friend Amanda asked me what marketers were supposed to do in a world where you can block popups and fast-forward through commercials on TiVO. How are they supposed to get your attention, she wanted to know.

I don't WANT them to get my attention.
They are not ENTITLED to my attention.
I may CHOOSE to give them my attention if they have a product I need or want.

If they try to trick me into forgetting these three things by getting cute and/or viral, then I'm allowed to call bullshit, and that's what I'm doing.

Labels: marketing, viral, why are all my friends so goddamn obtuse