An attempt at rebranding (that must be crushed!)

As the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches (commonly taken to mean when the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter on April 12th), the Southern States are still sticking to the same fiction they have been spouting since reconstruction: the war was about states' rights.

It makes sense to try and rebrand history this way. After all, they were mainly fighting to preserve slavery. That's not something to be proud of.

It's our duty to not fall for Southern revisionist clever marketing. Slavery was a central theme to the war - just read the documents of secession to see how central slavery was.

True, the North did not enter the war to end slavery - they entered the war to preserve the Union. But as the war progressed, freeing the slaves became central.

Hell, even Haley Barbour admits that the war was about slavery. To pretend anything otherwise is to fall victim to the nefarious side of marketing...

The most sensible use of social media for businesses

Frosmo has the best use of social media for businesses I have seen to date - use Facebook connect to get people to log in to your site for A) a contest or B) some other benefit.

It's a natural way to leverage social media and try and get some visibility to your business in a way that seems natural and useful for the people involved. After all, who wants to have ANOTHER user name and password just to enter some contest or get customized info...

The great Friday round up (on a Monday)

Well, after a serious case of the bubons the copydude is back in business and I wanted to round up my favorite Friday memes.

-Best rant: Off the pill
Thoughtful, honest and hilarious.

-Best acoustic: Kalie Shorr
Makes the song listenable.

-Best remix: Friday - slowed 5x
Eat your heart out Sigur Ros

-Best of the best: Stephen Colbert sings Friday on Jimmy Fallon
Well, it's been pulled for copyright violation, so no links. But it was epic...

And finally, best of the worst, it's the Chipmunks version...

The collective insanity of the internet

In case you've missed it, the internet is currently going nuts about Rebecca Black's DIY pop single "Friday" which has over 45 MILLION views.

And by nuts, I mean nuts. The rabid frothing vitriol unleashed on this poor girl is proof that just because something can go viral doesn't mean you want it to.

It's just a kind of crappy pop song (I suppose using "crappy" and "pop" in the same sentence are redundant) recorded at a vanity studio by a 13 year old. Yet the response has all the reasoned intelligence of a digital lynch mob.

There is a lesson here for companies that want to harness the power of social media.

First of all, don't allow comments. If you really want to allow comments, moderate them ALL first. And if you don't want to moderate, than use Facebook connect to force all commenters to reveal their identity, which should keep all but the worst trolls in check. NEVER just allow comments. The people on the internet don't deserve that right any more.

That play on words slogan may not be so great after all

Just saw an ad for Maggi (a bullion cube producer) all about mom cooking great food and families. Their slogan is "It's hugging good"

I don't know about you, but the only thing that brings to mind is the rather less family friendly "it's f*cking good".

If that really was the intention, I have one word for the marketing genius behind that one.

FAIL

#Winning

The agency I work with (Command Associates) has won a Grand One for best B2B site. Big congrats to our brilliant art director for creating the site look and feel. Small congrats to me for being the one who worked with him on this!

See Grand One's list of winners

The exception that proves the rule

In case you haven't seen it, someone has actually pulled off a viral video. This was probably the best way to make it happen: choose a glamorous but funny spokesperson, and parody other popular viral videos. Who knows if it will help sell more Smartwater, but at least it's up to 6 million views on YouTube.

Watch the Jennifer Aniston "sex tape"

P.S. Good name for a video too