Living on Brand Street

Pepper Spray makes you cry

This was horrifying to watch. But the creativity around the meme is facinating. Tumblrs here and here. Even Martha got in the act. My contribution symbolizes that this is a message to America but ultimately our country is bigger than any rogue individual. (Fwiw, I really feel sorry for all the brave and honorable cops who are tainted by this jerk.)

John Lewis is stalking me

Advertisers call it behavioral targeting. Frankly I am in the business and I still hate it. Dare to look at a page on the John Lewis site and you'll be stalked by ads scrolling through the very products you just looked at. Creepy.

By the way John Lewis, I already bought a rug at Bentalls. On sale. Was just comparing your higher prices. So STOP the stalking.

Contextual advertising. Priceless.

I don't know if this is planned contextual advertising or just bad karma coincidence. Personally, If my web site was under attack, I would pull all online ads, but these things do happen on Internet time.

The Dark Side of User Generated Content

My submission to SXSW 2011 is the side of UGC the marketing world doesn't much like to talk about. When passionate people use their talents to trash a brand reputation, rather than polish it for free. I got a great reaction at the SCAMP conference showing some of the wittier work, probably because advanced brand parody and brand protest stuff has gotten super creative. That's why I think it will be a welcome addition to the SXSW lineup and hope you do too.

My own career has been centered on using my creative skill on behalf of brands. But from my progressive personal side, I have also used my skills to make a statement.

This video from back in spring 2006 is a classic example of UGC gone rogue. Chevy claimed they expected anti-SUV videos, but I am sure the guardians of the brand reputation on the PR side were none too happy. For me, it is a reminder that it takes real passion to be creative. People who create content for a brand will be lovers. Or haters. So I say, Let the Brands Beware. The user is not your monkey.

Chinese Shirley Temple (sigh) is just another Milli Vanilli

Oh no. Say it isn't so. Shirley = Vanilli. I am not sure why this bothers me so much, except that I was truly charmed with that adorable little China girl singing her beautiful ballad to welcome us, the tee vee viewing world, to her Games. I twittered as I watched that she would surely be one of the media stars of this Olympics. I bought into the package. Being a sucker for the child star, the Hallmark verse, the Kodak moment, I am not too proud to admit I got a tear in my eye at the perfect cuteness.
Now I cry for the real talent behind that performance, seven year old Yang Peiyi, who was not "flawless" enough physically (in the not so humble opinion of the organizers) to perform at the ceremony.  Dear Yang, I hope there is a Chinese Barbra Streisand for you out there, a role model to prove that talent is truly the real beauty.

For me, just a decadent, shallow, trendy western marketing pro, this is another example of the ultimate triumph of brand reputation over brand image. The perfect image is an invention; lip-synced or photo shopped. While I'll guess (duh) the Chinese aren't buying into the need for transparency in this age of  information, certainly most brand managers over here will see how this kind of fakery can only wound a brand — so much more than any gain that the invented perfect image might have produced. How embarrassing is this? Trust destroyed; brand evangelists now cynics. China doesn't care. I hope we do. Like it or not, the real brand truth will always be revealed.

The Devil Wears Primark

When your brand is synonymous with throwaway fashion, you have to be ready for bad press. But I couldn't help wonder how freaked all the folks who work on the Primark brand were about this show. Scheduled for Sunday 1st June on Channel 4 at 9:00pm, 'The Devil Wears Primark' with Alexa Chung was billed as an exposé of the sweatshop conditions suffered by workers who produce Primark's cheap chic clothing.

But the show was pulled. Hum. Kudos to their crisis PR team no doubt, but I wonder if this will just amplify the bad publicity? (And doesn't do much for the Channel 4 brand.) Of course Primark is no stranger to being outed for bad behavior. But as people start to connect the dots between corporate profits and issues like workers' rights and climate crisis, how long can companies like Primark hold off exposure? We can't ignore how selfish western consumption effects the rest of the world. This show will pop up on the net even if Channel 4 backed down.