Slashdot Mirror
Dr. Pepper Tries New Astroturf Method
glh writes "Blogging continues to make its way into corporate America. Dr. Pepper is now blogging to build a community around their new dairy based Raging Cow product by using "key influence bloggers". The key influence bloggers are currently made up of six people mostly in their late teens/early twenties who get promo merchandise as their only form of compensation. In return, they get to "advertise however they want" through their blog. Seems like this experiment could turn into the next "big thing" in advertising-- assuming people are willing to sell out their blog space. Bloggers beware!"
This is just more of the same ol' story: companies sticking their advertisements everywhere: cramming every possible orifice full of their logo. Now instead of being obnoxiously located above, below, and to the sides of all the content your reading on the net: it will now be located inside the content.
George Carlin was right.. bend over a little more..
Since I've never read a blog and and never plan to, I don't care how much advertising they put in it. Plus, maybe they would spend less on other areas and I would have to deal with less annoying flash ads.
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
You saw it here first, as Google takes over blogging, advertisers and spammers flood all the blogs with their products and ruin another medium for all.
Slashdot has legitimized this concept by linking to Raging Cow since the site is high on Google's pagerank index. I hope Michael enjoys his new hat.
What does it tell you about this 'next "big thing"' that I spent 5 minutes at this site trying to figure out what it was trying to sell and had to google 'raging cow' to figure out somewhere else that it is flavored milk. Ugh.
Chicks wrestling in mud to sell beer. Now *that's* the 'next "big thing"'!
Q...
With product names of "Chocolate Insanity" and "Pina Colada Chaos" it seems they'll bomb. Some exec at Dr Pepper probably decided to try and see what kind of impact this "new medium" might do for advertising what should be a quickly dead product. If it makes their marketing marginally better, you'll see it down the road for Dr Pepper's regular products. (Dr Pepper Exec)"Let's not just tarnish the good old Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper just yet with something that might be thought of as odd from an advertising standpoint."(/Dr Pepper Exec)
I used to have a good sig...
no one takes bloggers as an "unbiased news source" to begin with - and the people are free to advertise in any way they want, right? that means if they really do think it's crap, they're either a) going to say so or b) stop accepting it and stop writing about it. their only form of compensation is merchandise, so I'm more inclined to trust them than someone who says "oh, yeah, I LOVE Dr. Pepper! that's why they paid me $30,000 to appear in this commercial!". This blogger is saying "I LOVE Dr. Pepper! That's why I'm happily accepting crateloads of stuff to tell you about them!". IMHO, (I know, no such thing) this is actually a bit more sincere.
You see, without that little doohicky, the universe stops.
http://propheteer.org
I bet there aren't really "key bloggers of influence". Bloggers out there are writing about "Raging Cow" astroturfing with no compensation thus attaining the original goal of spreading brand awareness (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q =%22Raging+Cow%22+blog). Nobel Marketing Prize 2003.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
assuming people are willing to sell out their blog space.
Oh please. Most of the people who run weblogs would probably sell out faster than a $5.00 PlayStation 2.
How can anyone who claims to be a Dr Pepper fan spell it "Dr. Pepper?" This is a sad day.
Exactly the same. Except without the free merchandise.
Oh, wait...
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
At least it is nice to see some advertisers not going the route of picking traditional media and then using legislation to force that media upon people despite changing technology (Can anyone here remember a certain quote about using PVR's to skip ads being "stealing"?) Personally it's nice to see different models of advertising being explored... maybe with some luck we'll see a less invasive model that is more effective for advertisers and less annoying for everyday consumers. (Mind you I realize the likelyhood of that is about the same as Microsoft going the non profit corporation route..) Still, at least product endorsement/placement in blogging is preferable to having them install an LCD on the inside of my eyeballs and forcing ads into my subconscious. After all my subconscious is scary enough as it currently stands.
Beware of what? Guess what kids - your culture is being appropriated by the marketeers! (pause for gasps of astonishment and chagrin).
Is there even a line between culture and commerce anymore? In any event, the raging cow site drips with manufactured "kewl" - if you're influenced by this kind of pap you deserve to be sold carbonated milk, or whatever the hell it is.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
If people now are talking about Dr. Pepper more than we were yesterday, then the marketing approach has already worked.
.. who don't know any better that you should get paid for advertising products that make money for other people. I mean why should you advertise for free for some corporation. I don't think the bloggies in question.. really have an idea of how much cheaper they're making things for Dr. Pepper. And in return they get what.. t-shirts.. hats merchanidise... Ha they're still advertising Dr.Pepper for free even with the damn compensation they get. Screw that! Thats why i hate most main line clothing products cause they plaster their name on the clothing. I mean what the hell I pay 80 bucks for a shirt.. that has the name of the company plastered all over it.. so i'm a walking advert for them.
Personally I have a blog.. blogs aren't my beef.. and yes I do advertise on my blog... for Blogger.. why? because its a free service.. i pay nothing to upkeep my blog, so thats good compensation. These people still have to upkeep their sites.. no compensation.
Oh well its gonna fail miserably anyway so who cares..
Who makes you Sig?
And this is almost symbiotic and worthwhile. If you *really* like a product, I don't see why it would be anything but worthwhile to everybody accept compensation for endorsing it.
:)
Think of your favorite computing language/OS/Environment, for an example. I'll happily go on and on about Mac OS X, for example. If Apple gave me free stuff for evangelizing, it wouldn't change that.
The only real concern I can think of: I will also grumpilly go on and on about OS X as well. Perhaps they wouldn't like that. Perhaps no free stuff anymore if I did that. But that really wouldn't be all that different than what's happening today.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
I dunno, you can advertise a drink in any way you want to, but good advertising does not a good beverage make. Maybe it works for some people, but an advertisement makes me buy a drink once. From there on, the only way I'd buy it again is if it lived up to the hype.
Friends tell me how much I need to try Red Bull. I finally buy a can. Tastes like shit. No amount of persuasion from friends or TV will ever convince me to try it again.
Code Red. Why Pepsi is messing with Moutain Dew is beyond me. I try a bottle. Tastes like shit. I'll never buy Code Red again.
Vanilla Coke. I hear it advertised on the radio. I'm passing a convenience store, buy a bottle. Tastes like Coke and vanilla, but seperate. No blending of flavors. I'll never buy that again.
So, now there's some new drink from Dr. Pepper. I'll probably hear about it on the radio, or maybe see a blog. I'll buy a bottle some day. If I like it, I buy more. If I don't, I won't buy it ever again.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
isn't that people are marketing this stuff in their blog. It is Dr. Pepper providing gear for their efforts.
Most people walk around happy to sport logos everywhere: their t-shirts, shoes, cars, computers (or computer components). They actually pay for the privilege. Why anyone would be surprised or upset about the tables being turned, I don't understand.
Product placement in our entertainment is everywhere and will become even more prevelent as traditional marketing becomes less effective. I view blogs as primarily entertainment and was frankly expecting this.
BTW, anyone see the Ford Focus car chase in Alias? I had to turn it off when they zoomed in for a lingering shot on the Focus' logo. Blech.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
You're totally off base here. The problem with payola is that the radio stations have a government granted monopoly allowing them license to utilize a finite public good. In a given area, there's a relatively small limit on the number of stations that can broadcast at a given time. Because of this, a pay-for-airplay system unfairly excludes a number of songs from the market and restricts the ability of the airwaves to be used to best benefit the citizenry to which they ultimately belong.
Furthermore, radio stations are still allowed to accept compensation for traditional advertisements. It's understood that even though the stations are utilizing a public good, such activity still requires funding. As such, it's permitted that the run paid advertisements during their programming. However, it's just not permitted for them to subvert the "serving the public" obligation (i.e. playing music) with that programming being driven by money.
Finally, blogs aren't a closed market. Any idiot can throw up a webserver and jump into the fray. There are two privileges that the "popular" blogger enjoys: 1) More bandwidth (as they've presumably invested in better hosting as part of their growth) and 2) More eyeballs. Neither one of these is out of reach a new entry into the market. While some sites (such as Slashdot) enjoy part of their success from being the first on the field, there's no intrinsic factors in the medium that prevent newcomers from one day achieving comparable success.
So overall, it's just plain old product placement. Purists may be upset with it (and may question the artistic integrity of the blogger over it), but there's no wrongdoing here barring future potential misconduct on the part of a blogger (such as lying about the product or utilizing a blog server that prohibits commercial content).
RB
the raging cow site, which looks like a blog, at least superficially, has links to six blogs on the lower right of the screen.
i take is these are supposed to be the "blogs" that are doing the advertizing? THESE ARE FAKES!!! look at them. they're all designed by the same person. they're all banal pap. they're not real!
am i just crazy? i think these were set up specifically for the purpose of this ad campaign. please tell me i'm nuts.
There are no trolls. There are no trees out here.
And life just gets more and more like TV: Now, I have to consider whether my family/friends/coworkers are "gettin' paid" before I take them up on that recommendation to see "Master Of Disguise II".
Maybe it's a good thing to question everyone's motives in everything they say to you, regardless them being an advertiser, a teacher, a government, a religeous leader, a web log. Asking "why are they telling me this."
Why am I telling you this?
_______
2B1ASK1
I spent 5 minutes browsing ragingcow.com and all I've learned is that someone has spent an inprdinate amount of time writing a blog using a cow persona. I have no interest in returning to the site, reading what's on the site, or indeed, finding out why someone is pretending to be a cow in the first place. What an incredibly lame marketing ploy.
If in any way you are saying that professors and teachers in K-12/college are not liberal minded - then think again. How can it be possible without strong political parents (which there are few and far between) to influence children? Children and young adults are being educated in a system that is bias and being bombarded by bias media. Most children don't understand our tax system, want socialized medicine, taxes on the productive people in society to be unfair and unbalanced, and see nothing wrong with behaviours of our last President.
The real world should teach you that you don't need intrusion into your life and assistance without earning it (wellfare, quotas, etc)
The real world should teach you that if you like to smoke (it's bad for you, but your choice) that you can without being taxed up the wazoo, that you can drive without paying gas tax up the wazoo, that you can have CAPITALIZED medicine so you don't have to go to another country like the Canadians do for healthcare, that you say what you want, believe what you want. That's the real world. The real world in a socialized, peacenik, moral devoid society led to the Sept 11th bombing - Al Queda had no regard for human life, told members they were going to heaven, and blamed it partially on the USA capitalistic nature, which if didn't exist would stop the world COLD.
Thank you for your opinion, most people post, as the author of the original post did; Anonymous Coward.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
You're half-right, in that I've coded better pages by banging my hip into the keyboard. :)
What the F is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to say you got fucked on your keyboard?
Joseph?
I despise Microsofts bussiness practices and think they are assh*les but dam they do make some great products.
Seriously, Windows is a piece of crap but Visual Basic Enterpise edition is great that its such a time saver but anything remotly pro vb is modded down as flamebait. I do not understand why slashdotters hate it. In the bussiness world outside the age of most slashdotters the motto is time=money and integration is key. Microsoft is successfull because everything is glueable in languages like VB or ole or dcom/com++. Bussinesses do not care about hype or what looks cool but what gets the work done.
Visual Basic is so powerfull its even used to track orders on fed-ex. The back processing is still done on mainframe but the local ordering processing engine is written in vb and it handles a quarter million hits a day!
I find anything not pro linux = flamebait. Even if its pro solaris or other unix. Its like a cult.
http://saveie6.com/
They're expecting teens/early 20s people to be positive about something? get off. I can't buy it. All I see are bloggers bitchin and whining unless it's about pr0n. I think Dr. Pepper would be better off paying them to diss their competition. THat's a natural fit for people this age. Then agian, maybe that's my generation (mid 20s). Maybe early 20s are happy and shit. Maybe they aren't cynical bastards full of pessimism. I doubt it ;-).
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
Why is anyone reading anyone else's daily adventures?
Seems worse than reality TV (which I hate). Ugh.
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
Blogging is very overrated by the mass media. Every single (printed) story I've read on it heralds it as a revolution in reporting and acts like it's going to be the dominant way people get information very soon; when you get down to it it's just a million people with agendas bitching about stuff for their friends to read. I don't think that media ignorance of technology alone is enough to explain this, so the question in my mind is, why does the media hype blogging so? What stock could the mass media possibly have in the success or stagnation (as long as there are things to bitch about and people to run the sites it won't die) of blogging?