First published in Nett Magazine.
When media and marketing website mUmBRELLA published news about a company hiring staff to make positive statements about it on blogs, a flurry of outrage ensued. The majority of the 200 comments posted over the next 48 hours found the method of fake personas contrary to the spirit of social media.
But according to Sean O’Byrne, integrated communications director at Mark Communications, it’s not a rare occurrence.
First published in Nett Magazine.
When Samboy Chips decided to re-launch its brand using a social media campaign it decided Facebook was a good place to start. Why? There was already a popular facebook group called ‘Bring Back Atomic Tomato Chips’.
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First published here.
It’s in a squat plastic jar on the third shelf of my fridge. It’s not actually the finest jam available but I think it is. Why? Because my best friend made it and it’s infused with sincerity, friendship and warmth.
In the world depicted in the 2002 film Minority Report, advertising is everywhere. And it’s scarily smart. Suspended billboards scan passing consumers’ eyeballs, compute their purchasing history and address them by name. After the main character (played by Tom Cruise) undergoes an eyeball swap to change his identity, a creepy in-store hologram sings out to him: “Hello Mr Yakimoto, welcome back to The Gap! How did those assorted tank tops work out for you?”
The message is clear: assorted tank tops today, mind control tomorrow. Well, as it turns out, no. Consumers in 2009 might still pale at the idea of involuntary retina scans, but gone are the days when technology-enabled target advertising fuelled widespread Big Brother theories.
