Blogads for opinion makers » Trash Talk http://web.blogads.com/blog Thu, 05 Dec 2013 21:24:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2 #SUXORZ 2012: The worst social media screw-ups of the year http://web.blogads.com/blog/2012/02/17/suxorz-2012-the-worst-social-media-screw-ups-of-the-year/ http://web.blogads.com/blog/2012/02/17/suxorz-2012-the-worst-social-media-screw-ups-of-the-year/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:23:18 +0000 http://blog.web.blogads.com/?p=7141

Each year, when Blogads hosts #SUXORZ at Social Media Week NY, we think its the last. We naively believe that corporations, politicians and celebrities will finally learn how to do The Social Media right. Lucky for the mob of 150 social media fanatics that joined us at the Gershwin Hotel on Wednesday night, 2011 defied and our optimism and was full of spectacular social media screw-ups.

This year’s SUXORZ panel was the final panel of the Blogads Social Media Spectacular. As in prior years, Blogads’ CEO Henry Copeland was the ring leader. Henry was joined by 360i’s VP of Emerging Media David Berkowitz, creative technologist and integrated marketer BL Ochman, DigiDay Editor-in-Chief Brian Morrissey, and sex & relationship author Twanna A. Hines.

The crowd showed up early to libate up on complimentary beer and wine, then grabbed their noisemakers and popcorn and settled in to jeer the best of the worst in social media.

Want to take a peak at SUXORZ? Maybe you were there and need a new Facebook profile pic. In any case, check out our SUXORZ 2012 album.

THE DECK

ROUND 1: #tinears

These folks proved that it’s a little too easy to click that “send” button when you THINK you have a great idea.

Winner: Ashton Kutcher tweets pro-Paterno (and anti-taste)

Runners up:

ROUND 2: Don’t Mess with Bloggers

What happens when you kick a swarming nest of bloggers?

Winner: Ragu spams dad-bloggers with video making fun of them

Runners up:

ROUND 3: Fun with hash tags

“Hey, we hear there’s something called a hash tag! Let’s try to use one!”

Winner: Durex writes a seriously offensive #DurexJoke 

Runners up:

ROUND 4: Twitter Hijacking

Before choosing your brilliant hashtag or account name, make sure it’s not taken already in social media. And then make sure that people actually like you.

Winner:  Netflix launches Qwikster without checking out @Qwikster, a king stoner, first 

Runners up:

PALETTE CLEANSER: Well-Played

The #SUXORZ panel isn’t completely focused on failure. Here are some social media wins from the last year:

ROUND 5: Trying too hard

If you don’t really get social media, you really shouldn’t use it.

Winner: Woody Harrelson goes on Reddit, refuses to answer “anything” in an AMA (ask me anything) forum

Runners up:

ROUND 6: Politics

Because politicians need to show how relatable they are, they manage to hash up social media, too.

Winner: Anthony Weiner… need we say more?

Runners up:

ROUND 7: Shut up!

Forgetting that social media is, y’know, social, these folks didn’t want to hear from their customers.

Winner: Boners BBQ tells Yelping customer to go play “hide and go f*ck yourself.” 

Runners up:

ROUND 8: Audience Choice

We asked the #SUXORZ mob what their favorite social media #FAIL of the last year was.

Winner: JetBlue places QR codes in subway, where no one has Internet access.

FINAL ROUND: DUREX VS WEINER

In softball tournament fashion, we split our nominees into two groups and had the audience vote via noisemaker, as they had done all night. Then we pitted the two round-robin winners against each other. After all was said and done, Durex was named the most unforgivable social screw-up of the year.

MORE REACTIONS FROM THE #SUXORZ MOB

We had another great turnout this year. Here are some more of the night’s best tweets.


Check out Heidi Cohen’s blow-by-blow coverage over at SmartBlog on Social Media and Susan J Campbell’s wrap-up on her Copywriting Solutions blog.

Do you have your own favorite terrible social media blunder? Submit it to the SUXORZ Facebook group, and maybe we’ll trash it next year.

]]> http://web.blogads.com/blog/2012/02/17/suxorz-2012-the-worst-social-media-screw-ups-of-the-year/feed/ 0 J.Lo’s shameless, strange and sad Fiat fiasco http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/11/22/j-los-shameless-strange-and-sad-fiat-fiasco/ http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/11/22/j-los-shameless-strange-and-sad-fiat-fiasco/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:04:27 +0000 http://blog.web.blogads.com/?p=6302

Product placement. It used to be a fairly subtle art. Snapple bottles in Jerry’s kitchen, Marty McFly’s futuristic Nikes, E.T.’s trail of Reese’s Pieces… But now that we’ve gotten used to seeing brand names in the bakgrounds of our favorite movies, shows and video games, marketers have to find new, heavier-handed ways to inject brands into our entertainment.

Case in point: Jennifer Lopez’s live Fiat plug during Sunday night’s American Music Awards. In the middle of JLO’s medley performance, a Fiat 500 appeared on stage, and the singer/actress hopped in to reenact her strange new commercial, complete with pseudo green screen for full fake-driving effect.

And then the backlash began.

The Roots’ Questlove and singer John Legend, who were apparently live-tweeting from the Nokia Theatre, were the first to chime in:

David Eckstein notes on MSN’s Music News that the backlash is expected. But what’s surprising is “just how high-profile the people are who are ripping her.”

But can this stunt be called shameless if the parties involved are so close to rock bottom?

AgencySpy’s Kiran Aditham describes the performance as a new high for product placement but a new low for Lopez:

Sure, she may have set a precedent, but she destroyed what little integrity she had left (if she did have any left, that is) in just a few seconds.

Jonathan Welsh, in WSJ’s Driver’s Seat Blog, says it’s may not be worth exploring the depth of Lopez’s shamelessness:

People are likely to debate for some time whether the high-profile plug for Fiat crossed a line or broke an unwritten rule in the music business. But it may be a moot point for Fiat, which is having a difficult time re-entering the U.S. market after being unavailable here for decades.

Watch the whole bizarre performance here (The Fiat stuff starts around 1:15):

]]> http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/11/22/j-los-shameless-strange-and-sad-fiat-fiasco/feed/ 0 The deluge of blog posts that sunk the most sexist men’s casualwear ad – EVER! http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/10/04/the-deluge-of-blog-posts-that-sunk-the-most-sexist-mens-casualwear-ad-ever/ http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/10/04/the-deluge-of-blog-posts-that-sunk-the-most-sexist-mens-casualwear-ad-ever/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:34:57 +0000 http://blog.web.blogads.com/?p=5512

screengrab via iRewind user "Valley"

Did you catch the JCPenney commercial with the bikini-clad teenager? It had been blogged about here and there a few months ago, but Copyranter’s coverage seems to have open the gate to the recent flood of opinions. And boy did the opinions flow. So much so that JCPenney has apparently pulled the ad.

Behold, the power of the blogosphere!

Copyranter:
“Nice way to catch the attention of 40+ year-old horndog sports guys, I guess—using video of a girl about the age of their daughters.”

 

AdFreak:
“Now, there’s this dirty-old-man ad, clearly aimed at guys who remember the iconic stoner flick and might have replayed that Cates scene in their heads a million times. That was almost 30 years ago. Using the pubescent Cates now is not only weird and random, it’s just plain pervy.” – T.L. Stanley

 

Jezebel:
“Are you using computers to come up with your concepts now? Did this ad result from some sort of ad algorithm gone wrong: lady in bikini + sports personality = middle-aged men buy things. Beep bop boop.” – Cassie Murdoch

 

The Consumerist:
“What will you remember after watching it? That you really love Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Survey says? Advertising fail!” – MB Quirk

 

Styleite:
“We’re starting to wonder if J.C. Penney is actively courting bad press.” – Verena von Pfetten

 

Village Voice (Runnin’ Scared Blog):
“The one thing this doesn’t do is make us want to buy men’s clothing from J.C. Penney, so we guess it’s a lose-lose on that count.” – Jen Doll

 

Mommyish:
“I’m glad that, for once, this blatant sexism isn’t directly marketed towards girls. But, even so, it’s insulting to men and sends the message that they’re all nothing but horny, hot-chick-obsessed beings.” – Shawna Cohen

 

Racked:
Remember a couple of weeks ago, JCPenney was busy trying to sell teenage girls this “I’m too pretty to do homework” shirt? Well, the sexist team at JCP are at it again

 

Sociological Images:
“I’m not sure that quite everybody wins here. No, not quite everybody.” – Gwen Sharp

 

BlissTree:
So maybe we should take JC Penney’s use of Phoebe Cates‘ sexy bikini-clad body to sell dress shirts as a clever compliment to the female form, but instead, we mostly feel insulted by the implication that our bodies are just an advertising prop.” – Briana Rognlin

 

NowPublic:
 “Maybe the strip-mall retailer should have used another Phoebe Cates film: Gremlins.”

 

The Huffington Post:
 “We have to admit, when we saw the ad on TV, we just rolled our eyes at how blatant and unoriginal it was — how many ads have used girls in bikinis to sell, well, anything and everything besides a bikini? We’re so used to it… but does that make it any less wrong?” – Ellie Krupnick

 

]]> http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/10/04/the-deluge-of-blog-posts-that-sunk-the-most-sexist-mens-casualwear-ad-ever/feed/ 0 Trash Talk: Ad journos are not nuts for new pistachio commercials http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/09/14/trash-talk-ad-journos-are-not-nuts-for-new-pistachio-commercials/ http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/09/14/trash-talk-ad-journos-are-not-nuts-for-new-pistachio-commercials/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:42:18 +0000 http://blog.web.blogads.com/?p=5237
Wonderful Pistachios have added Kloe and Lamar and The Winklevoss Twins to a series of commercials staring an already-strange assortment of pop culture personalities,  such as Snooki, Angry Birds, Wee Man and more puns than you can stomach.

Here’s what 7 journalists and bloggers have to say about the latest “Wonderful pistachio ads.”

AdFreak: “Let’s call an advertising moratorium on any campaign that stars a Kardashian. Please?” – T.L. Stanley

copyranter: “Now: also note that with a cheap short spot like this, there had to be many, many takes to choose from. And THIS was the best one.”

All Things D: “You think that if you just shove a couple Web-friendly characters into your ads for pistachios (pistachios?) that time-strapped bloggers will dutifully click over to YouTube, grab the embed codes and slap up a post, don’t you? Geniuses!” – Peter Kafka

Mogulite: “In one of the campaign’s ads, the two brothers, who once claimed Facebook was their idea, sit, in suits (of course), and well…crack a pistachio. It’s nothing too exciting, but the whole country’s about to see it.” – Hillary Reinsberg

The San Francisco Egotist: “While these aren’t the worst things on TV, they just don’t excite us very much. Kind of like pistachios.”

New York Observer: “A million pistachio nuts is cool. You know what’s really cool? A billion pistachio nuts. Which they now clearly have access to.” – Foster Kamer

Sodahead: “Either the Winklevoss twins really like pistachios, or they need money bad.”

On a interesting side note, 6 of the 21 videos listed by WonderfulPistachios are currently private. According to Market Watch, those might feature: Kermit the Frog, The Honey Badger, and everyone’s favorite members of the popular zeitgeist, a priest, a rabbi and a minister at a bar.

]]> http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/09/14/trash-talk-ad-journos-are-not-nuts-for-new-pistachio-commercials/feed/ 0 Trash Talk: Photoshop irony, Tomboy-phobia, and the rhymes-with-cupid electronics giant http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/08/12/trash-talk-photoshop-irony-tomboy-phobia-and-the-rhymes-with-cupid-electronics-giant/ http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/08/12/trash-talk-photoshop-irony-tomboy-phobia-and-the-rhymes-with-cupid-electronics-giant/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:54:32 +0000 http://blog.web.blogads.com/?p=4761

photo by Al Muya

Here’s what’s making industry opinion-makers cringe this week:

Photoshop Irony

Remember the L’Oreal ad that was banned in the UK for over-Photoshopping Julia Roberts? Adverblog’s Martina Zavagno points out the great irony with the L’Oreal Men’s new video:

The video is rather amusing, and it shows the wonders of Photoshop retouch, an art we all know L’Oreal masters, especially after the Advertising Standards Authority banned their Julia Roberts print campaign for creating a “false impression of beauty.”

– Adverblog

Tomboy-phobia

What’s this mom’s deal? AdFreak‘s David Gianatasio wonders what Tide has against tomboys:

The brand wants it both ways—edgy and safe—and ends up with content that’s awkward and confusing. Sweater-swathed Mom does seem Stepford-Wife-ish in her over-art-directed house, and she’s big-time into girls-should-wear-pink gender norms. Still, there’s wiggle room, and it’s unclear (on first viewing, at least) if she is indeed meant to be the butt of the joke.

– AdFreak

Rhymes-With-Cupid Electronics Giant

Photo by Ted Fu

Sony fans are eager to get their hands on the PS Vita while it’s still relevant. With a scheduled release date in 2012, and all the cool games coming out in 2013, Benzinga’s Louis Bedigian asks “If the ‘A’ in Apple stands for ‘Awesome,’ What does the ‘S’ in Sony stand for?”

At that rate, PS Vita’s launch is likely to resemble that of the Nintendo 3DS. Super Mario 3D Land, the Nintendo device’s most anticipated (original) game, will not arrive until November – more than six months after the system was released. And unlike the 3DS, PS Vita doesn’t have any unique gimmicks to push it out the door. Its dual-touch feature (one touch screen on top and one touch pad underneath the system) is not enough to sway consumers, especially when there aren’t any cool games to demonstrate the purpose of that feature.
– Benzinga

]]> http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/08/12/trash-talk-photoshop-irony-tomboy-phobia-and-the-rhymes-with-cupid-electronics-giant/feed/ 0 Trash Talk: Levi’s explosions met with a “meh” http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/07/15/trash-talk-the-levis-video-people-be-hatin-on/ http://web.blogads.com/blog/2011/07/15/trash-talk-the-levis-video-people-be-hatin-on/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:33:20 +0000 http://blog.web.blogads.com/?p=4366

The Portuguese artist Vhils is known for his “destructive” approach to art, carving murals into public walls, transforming abandoned billboards, and often blowing things up.

So when Levi’s (with W+K Amsterdam) hired Vhils to create murals on Berlin walls for its Go Forth campaign, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that he would also blow them up. And that Levi’s would make a video of it.

This morning, ad journalists who have seen the video are wondering, So what?

AdFreak’s Gabriel Beltrone says Levi’s “attempt to look cool” is in contention with Beck’s Green Door to Nowhere for “Artsy Advertiser of the week:”

Exploding murals is apparently a signature medium for Vhils, who have a whole abstract theoretical line as to why it’s like archaeology. We’re not sure about all that, and the whole slow-motion thing ends up feeling being a bit melodramatic, and the boom a bit anemic.

Steve Hall at AdRants says exposions are a tired way of being (wannabe) cool:

Every last tactic used to appear cool and hip and all connected and shit has been used. And used. And used. Over and over. And over again. And again. But, apparently, a good explosion is always worth a minute or two of your time. Or at least that what Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdamn thinks.

Alice Arsham, of the French marketing blog MinuteBuzz, calls the video, roughly translated, “least impressive” and says it’s reminiscent of Levi’s own ads from 2006.

So, have slow-motion explosions had their time in the sun? What about really, really slow slow-motion explosions?

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